🇵🇾 Paraguayan Cuisine

Empanada Paraguaya

Paraguayan Empanada

Prep Time 40 min

Servings 12

Difficulty Medium

Calories 302 kcal

Golden half-moon pastries filled with seasoned beef, hard-boiled egg, and olives, fried until the flaky crust shatters at first bite — Paraguay's favorite handheld meal.

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 egg
Warm water as needed
Salt
500g ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
12 green olives
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
Oil for frying

Instructions

1 Make dough: mix flour, salt, shortening, and egg. Add warm water gradually until smooth. Rest 30 min.
2 Cook filling: sauté onion and bell pepper. Add beef, cumin, paprika, salt. Cook through. Let cool. Mix in chopped eggs and olives.
3 Roll dough thin. Cut circles 12cm diameter.
4 Place filling on one half. Fold over, seal edges with fork.
5 Fry at 180°C until golden, about 4-5 min. Or bake at 200°C for 20 min.
6 Serve hot.

Did You Know?

At Paraguayan birthday parties, empanadas are as essential as the cake — no celebration is complete without a mountain of them.