Galician tuna empanada

Galician tuna empanada

€4.92 │ Serves 4 │ €1.23 per portion │ 45-60mins │ Spain

Empanadas are a crowd pleaser! Crumbly pastry filled with tuna, onion, and peppers in a garlicky tomato sauce make the empanada gallega a delicious Spanish classic.

• What to serve it with?
• Leftovers
• Utensils
• Ingredients
• Method
• Tips

What to serve it with?

Given that they are quite filling, empanadas are great accompanied by a simple salad, though potato salad (especially a Spanish ensaladilla) works well too.

Leftovers

Spoonfeed meal plans save you money by using the economy of scale. Making the extras from dinner into a leftover lunch avoids spending out and extra time cooking!

Empanadas are great for leftovers, either cold or warmed back up the next day.

Utensils

• Baking dish
• Wok/sauté pan
• Spatula

Ingredients

• 400g pastry (shortcrust or puff, depends what you like)
• 250g canned tuna in oil
• 2 salad tomatoes/250ml crushed tomato/passata
• 1 red pepper (1/2 if large)
• 1 green pepper (1/2 if large)
• 1 red onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Flour

Method

1. Cut pepper into long strips. Dice onion and garlic and sauté in olive oil with a dash of salt and pepper on medium heat. After about 3 minutes when it begins to turn a golden colour, add the tomato and peppers and keep mixing.
2. After 2 minutes, add paprika, mix well, and then the drained tuna. Keep the ingredients moving on the heat for 2 minutes, then reserve and set aside on a separate plate to cool down. To avoid extra dishes, this can be the plating you intend to eat on. Top tip: to speed up the cooling of the ingredients, make a well in the centre so the heat can escape.
3. As the filling is saucy, you need to blind bake the bottom of your pastry. If you are making your own pastry, set half aside for the lid. If you are purchasing pastry from the supermarket, this likely entails the purchase of two packets as pastry often comes in 230g packets, enough for one side of the empanada.
4. Line a baking dish with butter and flour, then place your pastry inside, ensuring it covers the bottom and all sides. Pierce all over with a fork, then bake at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until the bottom has just cooked past raw.
5. While the pastry is cooking, now's a good time to work on any salad you may want to accompany the empanada with.
6. Once the pastry is blind baked, and the ingredients are cooled, add the mix to the pastry, then top with the other half of the pastry, cutting off the excess. Roll out any excess and place on top in long, round, and thin diagonal strips.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry on top and bottom are both golden brown.
8. Serve hot and enjoy!

Tips