Gordon Ramsay’s beef empanadas are little puff pastry parcels filled with spiced minced beef, green olives and chopped egg, baked until golden. They take about an hour and make 18.
Gordon makes these in his Ultimate Cookery Course, and also cooks them on YouTube. His honest shortcut is the pastry, using shop-bought all-butter puff rather than making it from scratch.
He reckons that pastry is far too time consuming to do at home, so cheating keeps a fiddly dish quick.
The detail that lifts them is cooking the spices off first. Gordon toasts cumin, cinnamon and paprika with the onions before the beef goes in, which he says deepens the flavour.
Chopped hardboiled egg and green olives through the filling are the classic touch most home versions miss.
Gordon Ramsay Beef Empanadas
Course: Appetizer, SnackCuisine: Latin American, SpanishDifficulty: Medium18
30
minutes20
minutes190
kcal50
minutesGordon Ramsay’s beef empanadas from his Ultimate Cookery Course. Spiced minced beef with green olives and chopped egg, folded into shop-bought puff pastry, baked golden and served with a quick chimichurri. Makes 18.
Ingredients
- For the empanadas
2 × 375g packets all-butter puff pastry
Olive oil, for frying
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Pinch of ground cumin
Pinch of ground cinnamon
½ tsp paprika
300g minced beef
4 tbsp pitted green olives, chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
Pinch of sugar
2 hardboiled eggs, finely chopped
1 large egg, beaten
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the chimichurri sauce
Bunch of flat-leaf parsley
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano, or 1 tsp dried
1 tsp dried chilli flakes, to taste
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
5 tbsp olive oil
Directions
- Cut the pastry: Roll out both blocks of pastry to 3mm and cut eighteen discs with an 11cm cutter or saucer. Cover with cling film and chill while you make the filling.
- Soften and spice: Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan and sweat the onion and garlic gently for about 5 minutes, until soft but not coloured. Add the cumin, cinnamon and paprika and stir until aromatic.
- Brown the beef: Add the beef, season, and cook for about 5 minutes until lightly browned. Mix in the olives, oregano, chilli flakes, sugar and chopped egg, taste for seasoning, then leave to cool.
- Fill and seal: Spoon about 1 tbsp of filling onto each disc, leaving a 1cm border. Brush beaten egg around half the border, fold over into a half-moon, then crimp the edges and press out any air.
- Chill and heat: Chill the empanadas for 20 minutes to firm up. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180C (160C fan) Gas 4.
- Bake: Make a steam hole in the top of each with a skewer, brush with beaten egg, and bake for 18 to 20 minutes until golden brown.
- Make the chimichurri: Roughly chop the parsley, garlic and fresh oregano in a small processor, add the rest of the ingredients, and blitz briefly. Season to taste.
- Serve: Cool the empanadas on a wire rack and serve warm or cold, with the chimichurri to spoon over or dip into.
FAQs
What are beef empanadas, and where are they from?
They are savoury pastry parcels filled with spiced meat, folded into a half-moon and baked or fried.
Gordon’s are the baked kind, made with the spiced beef and olive filling described above.
The empanada probably began in Spain, then spread across Latin America, which is why versions differ from country to country.
Gordon leans Argentinian here, with green olives and chopped egg, a different turn for mince than his spaghetti bolognese.
What pastry does Gordon use for empanadas?
Shop-bought all-butter puff pastry, two 375g packets, which is the cheat he is happy to admit to.
Making puff from scratch is more effort than the dish is worth at home, so he skips it.
Roll it to about 3mm and cut discs with an 11cm cutter or a saucer.
Chilling those discs while the filling cools, as the recipe says, keeps the butter firm so they puff rather than slump.
Can you make Gordon’s empanadas in an air fryer?
Yes, and they crisp up beautifully. Brush them with the same egg wash, then air fry at around 180C for 10 to 12 minutes.
That is a little less than the oven, since the air moves faster around them.
Do them in batches so they are not touching, and keep the steam hole.
The pastry browns quickly in there, so check them a couple of minutes early the first time.
What do you serve and dip beef empanadas in?
Chimichurri is the classic, and the one Gordon pairs with his.
His chimichurri sauce of parsley, garlic, oregano and red wine vinegar takes minutes and cuts through the rich pastry.
Beyond that, a squeeze of lime, a soured cream dip or a fresh tomato salsa all work.
Keep them on the side to spoon over or dip into, rather than inside, so the pastry stays crisp.
Can you make empanadas ahead or freeze them?
Yes, they are made for it. Fill and shape them, then chill or freeze them raw, and bake straight from cold with a few extra minutes.
That makes them handy party food, like his scotch eggs.
Baked ones keep two or three days and are good warm or cold.
Reheat them in the oven rather than the microwave, so the pastry crisps back up instead of going soft.
Why cool the filling and add a steam hole?
Two small steps that decide whether the pastry works.
A hot filling melts the butter in the pastry before it bakes, so it leaks and goes greasy, which is why Gordon cools it first.
The steam hole then lets the filling vent as it cooks, so the parcels do not burst at the seal.
It is the same venting logic as his beef Wellington, just on a smaller scale.
