National Empanada Day Date in the current year: April 8, 2024

Empanada is a type of turnover that is thought to have originated in the Spanish region of Galicia over 500 years ago. The first recorded mention of the dish dates back to 1520; it is a recipe of seafood-stuffed empanadas published in the Llibre del Coch, a Catalan cookbook written by the renowned chef Robert de Nola under his pen name Mestre Robert.

Spanish and Portuguese seafarers brought empanadas to Central and South America, where they were adopted by local cuisines. Empanadas are also popular in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sicily, and the United States (especially in areas that have a large Hispanic population). Today, empanadas are a staple in Latin restaurants, bakeries, food trucks and food carts.

The word “empanada” can be translated from Spanish as “enbreaded”, i. e. coated or wrapped in bread. Emplanadas are made by placing a filling on a piece of dough, folding the dough over the filling, sealing, and then baking, frying or deep frying it. Similar pastries can be found in many other cuisines; they include pirozhki, calzone, samosa, knish, pasty, borek, chebureki, fatayer, ochpochmaq, and more.

Empanadas can be savory or sweet, although savory empanadas are more common. Popular fillings include meat, fish, cheese, corn, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, beans, pumpkin, rice, sausage, sweet potatoes, custard, pineapple, coconut, jam, cream cheese, Nutella, peanut butter, nuts, and others.

Empanadas are especially popular in Chile, where they are considered to be the most representative dish of the national cuisine. Chilean empanadas are the predominant food associated with the Fiestas Patrias, a two- or three-day celebration of the Chilean independence. They are usually filled with a mixture of chopped beef and onion called pino, as well as an olive and half of a hard boiled egg.

Other countries of Central and South America where empanadas are part of the national cuisine include Argentina, Belize, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Each country, and in some cases even every region within a country, has their own characteristic variant of empanadas.

For example, empanadas in Belize are made with corn dough (masa), stuffed with chicken, fish, or beans, and deep fried. Colombian empanadas are made with corn or wheat dough and stuffed with meat stew with rice and vegetables, mashed potatoes with ground meat, cheese, pumpkin, or peanuts. The most popular empanada fillings in the Dominican Republic are chicken, ground meat, and cheese.

In Ecuador, a sweet variation of the dish called empanadas de viento is popular. These empanadas are stuffed with cheese and rolled in or sprinkled with sugar after frying. A sweet empanada variation from El Salvador is named empanadas de platano. They are made from plantain dough and filled with custard.