These spicy potato and pea filled Indian empanadas are full of flavor, vegetarian, so easy to make and completely filling and delicious.
What are Indian empanadas?
Empanadas are little pockets of dough that are filled with a variety of savory fillings and baked or fried. They are very common in Latin American cuisine, but have translated to other parts of the world. These Indian empanadas are so yummy because they take a classic Indian samosa filling of potato and pea and stuff them into empanada dough. So good!
Why should I make these empanadas?
They are vegetarian but super filling with a hearty potato pea mixture.
The amount of spice in these is so perfectly balanced, with just a hint of spice and curry. Exotic without being overwhelming!
The filling is a really easy to make mashed potato filling, and these fry up quickly to golden crispy perfection.
The Indian empanadas can also be air fried to a great result!
Ingredients you need:
Potatoes
Peas
Olive oil
Fresh ginger– this adds so much flavor to the potatoes, you can also sub ginger powder in a pinch
Spices: masala spice or curry powder, turmeric, cumin, salt
Chili sauce or chili flakes
A squeeze of lemon juice which really brightens up the potatoes, as well as some fresh coriander for the same reason
How do I make these potato pea empanadas:
Make the filling:
It’s as simple as boiling the potatoes until tender, draining and mashing them.
Add olive oil to a skillet, and then add the ginger, and spices and sauté until fragrant. Mix together the mashed potato, spices, peas, lemon juice and fresh coriander. That’s your filling complete!
Assemble the empanadas:
In the center of each empanada dough circle, placed a heaped tablespoon of potato filling. Flatten the filling down a little to make it easier to seal the empanadas, then mix together the flour and water to form a thick paste. Brush the edges of one half of the empanada with the flour water paste, then fold it up and over the filling.
The flour/water will help seal the dough so it doesn’t open up while frying. Press down on the edges of the dough with a fork to crimp and seal. Check out the recipe video in the recipe card to see the steps in action!
You can also use the filling to make more traditional Indian potato samosas, just use samosa wrappers for the outside instead. Check out the recipe videos in this samosa recipe to see how you can fill and assemble.
Frying the empandas:
Heat enough vegetable oil to come up to 1-2 inches of the bottom of a shallow skillet, and carefully drop in the empanadas. You’ll need to do this in batches to avoid overcrowding. Fry on each side 2-3 minutes until golden brown, then move to a paper towel lined plate to absorb some of the excess oil.
Air frying the empanadas:
Preheat the air fryer to 370 F for 5 minutes. Lightly spray fryer basket with vegetable oil spray, then add empanadas to fryer basket. Lightly spray with oil and fry for 7-8 minutes, then turn over and fry another 6 minutes or until golden brown.
Baking potato empenadas:
Bake in a 350 F hot oven (180C) for 15 minutes until golden brown. They will catch a better color if you lightly brush them with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon of water) before going in the oven.
What to serve empanadas with:
You can enjoy these plain or serve with a bunch of different dipping sauce options. I like these with plain yogurt, or with chili sauce. You can also serve with green chutney, mango chutney, or raita and keep the Indian theme going!
Preparing Indian empanadas in advance:
You can fill and assemble the empanadas and freeze. They freeze very well for up to 3-4 months- either raw or fried, but my preference would be to freeze these raw. You can fry them directly from frozen.
To freeze them more easily, first flash freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet, and once hard to the touch you can pile them on top of each other in a freezer safe bag without them sticking to each other, making it easy to take out however many you need.
If you liked this recipe, you might like:
Indian Empanadas
Ingredients
- 4 potatoes about 1 lb, 500-550 g
- 2/3 cup peas
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon chili sauce, or a pinch of red chili flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon masala spice
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- squeeze lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (coriander)
To assemble and fry:
- thawed empanada wrappers 12 oz or 360g
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1/2 tbp water
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil unless air frying, see notes
Instructions
- Peel and dice potatoes, and boil until tender (20 minutes or so). Drain and mash.
- Add the olive oil to a skillet, and sauté the ginger for a minute or so until fragrant, add all the spices and sauté another 30 seconds. Set aside.
- To the mashed potatoes, add the chili sauce, sautéed ginger and spices, salt, coriander, lemon juice, and peas. Mix well to combine.
- Fill each empanada or sambosa wrappers with a generous tablespoon of potato filling, and seal dough with a little flour/water paste.
- Fry in hot vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes a side until golden brown.
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