CHEF LEO FOR PRESIDENT. Lol jk. He’s just a chef, but I promise you, his food is so delicious that it could probably run the world. To clarify, Leo is my mom’s friend who’s a chef and he is a BOSS at cooking vegan food. Every time he comes over for dinner, he is gracious enough to whip up something delicious for us little vegan munchkins! As quoted in Zombieland, “It’s the little things”. (Fun Fact: Woody Harrelson who plays Tallahassee in Zombieland is vegan so the twinkie that he ate in the movie was actually vegan #whoknew)
This time, Leo made made us kale, sweet potato, black bean empanadas (recipe below), barbeque sweet potato black bean burger, this really yummy pasta and some artichoke hearts. If you want any of the recipes for those, comment below, and I can use this nifty little new invention called email and email the ONE AND ONLY Chef Leo (follow him on insta @chefleogoodloe)
Recipe for empanadas below (does anybody else have an intense urge to say empanadas in a really thick spanish accent? Nobody? Am I alone in this world? #Existential #ImOnTinder)
- 2 cups organic all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
- 1/2 soy free vegan butter sticks
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
Directions:
- Mix flour, salt and baking soda in a food processor
- Add cubed vegan butter stick and pulse until the mixture becomes like coarse meal
- Add vegetable stock pulse until fully mixed
- Fold out dough on a floured surface and kneed for 1-2 minutes
- Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
- 2/3 cup cooked quinoa
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
- 1/2 cup shredded sweet potato
- 1/2 cup strained black beans
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon minced cilantro stems
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- Heat coconut oil in a non-stick skillet
- Add shredded sweet potatoes and brown them (approx. 2 minutes per side)
- Mix in garlic, onions and cilantro stems and simmer for 3 minutes
- Mix in quinoa, black beans, salt, pepper and lemon juice and cook all ingredients together for 1 minute
- Transfer the filling to a bowl to cool
- Flour a flat clean surface and use a floured rolling pin to roll out the dough to a very thin thickness
- Use a circle cookie cutter to cut the dough for the empanadas (3 inch diameter recommended)
- Place a tablespoon of filling into the middle of the empanada dough
- Fold the dough down the middle so that the edges touch to resemble a half moon
- Press the edges together with a fork to close the empanda dough around the filling
- Heat vegetable oil in deep pan on medium-high
- Place empanda so it is completely submerged in oil until golden brown (approximately 4 minutes on each side)
- Remove empanada and place on paper towel to cool
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