Ok I need another cookbook, another cooking magazine like I need a hole in my head. But found one! I was walking into Allen's and here was this little magazine called "Fine and Fresh" and there's some really great ideas in here. Plus, it has coupons! So, today we're going to make a nice little appetizer Yucatan Vegetable Empanadas. And the reason why I liked it is it uses garden produce. It calls for fresh potatoes, onion, peppers, zucchini, carrots, jalapeno, garlic, basil and oregano and refrigerated pie crust. So I'm going to prepare all the vegetables and then we're going to make our little empanadas.

Ingredients:

Potatoes
Onion
Peppers
Zucchini
Carrots
Jalapeno
Garlic
Basil
Thyme
Cumin
Black pepper
Oregano
Salt
1/2 cup reduced fat shredded cheese
Refrigerated pie crust

Dipping Sauce:

Ranch dressing
Salsa


Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Chop vegetables into small pieces. Sautee potatoes, carrots and onion in medium pan. Sautee for 5 minutes. Add pepper, zucchini and jalapeno. Cook additional 5 minutes.

Add basil, thyme, dash of cumin, black pepper and oregano. Add salt for finishing. Add shredded cheese.

Lay out circles of pie dough. Fill each with teaspoon of vegetable mixture. Brush edges with egg wash and fold each one over and crimp edges with fingers.

Line up empanadas on baking sheet and crimp edges with fork. Brush tops with egg wash. Bake for 15 minutes.

For dipping sauce mix ranch with salsa.



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We're going to sautee this and then we're going to add the herbs last. So when you sautee it's best to start with the things that are going to take the longest to cook. But we've also got garlic in here so we don't want our heat too high to where we will burn it. So we're going to get it started. Then I'm going to go with my potatoes and carrots. And then I'm going to leave the peppers, zucchini and jalapeno towards the end.

So the recipe says that you start these vegetables and we're going to cook for about 5 minutes.

Ok, the onions are nice and transparent, nice sheen on the potatoes and carrots. A little bit of browning. Now I'm going to add the peppers, zucchini and jalapeno. And then we're going to cook this an additional 5 minutes. So all total we'll have about 10 minutes total.

Now we're ready for our herbs. I'm sorry I said this was oregano. It's not. It's thyme. It's still good. So we're going to add some basil. We're going to snip up some fresh thyme. I'm going to put in a little dash of cumin. That's what's going to give it that good Latin twist. Some pepper, some oregano. And, remember, we add salt at the end because salt should be finishing. And these are course granules. I'm only going to put a few in and that will keep the salt content down, but give us all the flavor. And right away the herbs are blooming. Yum, this is good.

Ok, our filling has cooled down. And now I'm going to add half a cup of reduced fat cheese.

So I've got my oven preheated to 425. You want to pack the filling into the measuring spoon. And we might have to go down to a teaspoon. You don't want to overfill these. Brush with egg wash. Turn them over and then we're just going to crimp it down with our finger. And you can see I probably have too much in it because the filling is sticking out. And then when you go to bake it it'll kind of ooze and we don't want that.

Ok, our little empanadas are done. I'm going to transfer them to my baking sheet. And what I like to do when I put them on the baking sheet is just crimp them with a fork. That just makes sure they're nice and sealed. Then we're going to brush them with egg wash again and then we're going to put them in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Ok, our first round of empanadas are done. Now, this pie crust is such that the scraps you roll up you can roll out again and you can refill so you get a lot of little tasty morsels with one crust. Look how nice and golden brown they are from that egg wash.

And now, we're going to make a little dipping sauce of just ranch dressing and salsa. Mix it together. Let your empanadas cool down, dip, bite, enjoy. Wonderful.

So I've been burned a lot of times by trying a recipe right from the book without trying it, but these turned out wonderful. So next time you're at Allen's.. they're right inside the door. You gotta kinda look for them - "Fine and Fresh" magazine. Worth a look.

For KHAS-TV, I'm registered dietitian Pat McCoy.