Baked Keto Empanadas
Posted: 07/22/21
Updated: 11/08/21
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These keto empanadas are a perfect low carb snack or meal. A cheesy, flaky keto crust folded around savory seasoned ground beef and sautéed veggies, then baked to perfection. Even the carb-eaters in your family will love these low carb empanadas!
What Makes This Recipe So Good
- They’re delicious! The keto empanada dough gets nice and crisp, and the ground beef filling is full of flavor from the veggies and taco seasoning.
- They’re super easy to make! All of the ingredients are pretty typical pantry staples if you’re following keto, so you may even have everything you need to make these right now.
- Keto empanadas can be a make-ahead recipe of sorts. Make the filling and the dough, then store them separately, each in its own airtight container. Refrigerate them up to 24 hours, then when you’re ready to cook them, let the filling come to room temperature. After that you can finish the recipe out as written!
Key Ingredients
Ground Beef – You could swap this out with ground pork, ground turkey, or ground chicken if you want!
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese – Keto pro-tip: use a fresh mozzarella and grate it/shred it yourself. The prepackaged stuff is convenient, but they usually contain fillers and anti-caking agents to prevent clumping. The downside to those add-ins? Unnecessary carbs.
Almond Flour – We haven’t tested this recipe with any other low carb flours, so we can’t recommend any substitutions here. If you try any, let us know how it goes!
Xanthan Gum – I tried making these without adding xanthan gum and it just didn’t work. Don’t skip it!
Chef’s Tips
- The keto empanada dough can be kind of sticky. If you have trouble with it sticking to your hands when you press the discs, try pressing it under a layer of parchment paper. You could also refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes or so.
- If you’d like even crispier keto empanadas, you can pan-fry them in a neutral oil, like avocado or olive oil. OR, for a lighter alternative, use our air fryer empanada method!
- These empanadas freeze really well! You can prepare the entire recipe as written, but don’t bake the empanadas right away. Instead, place the baking sheet of sealed empanadas in the freezer for an hour or so to let them set up. After that, you can transfer them to an airtight container and keep them in the freezer up to 3 months. You can bake them from frozen for a super easy, effortless meal!
Other Keto Recipes You’ll Love
Baked Keto Empanadas
These keto empanadas are a perfect low carb snack or meal. A cheesy, flaky keto crust folded around savory seasoned ground beef and sautéed veggies, then baked to perfection. Even the carb-eaters in your family will love these low carb empanadas!
empanadas
Ingredients
For the Empanada Filling
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ pound ground beef
- ½ of one yellow onion chopped
- ½ of one green bell pepper chopped
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup water
For the Empanada Dough
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ¾ cups almond flour
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
For the Egg Wash
- 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Large pan
- Spatula or large spoon
- Large, microwave-safe bowl
- Silicone spatula
- Disher or cookie scoop with release handle
- Fork
- Basting brush
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In large pan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add ground beef and cook until browned, approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Drain ground beef, then add onions and bell peppers. Cook until vegetables are soft.
- Add taco seasoning, tomato paste, and water. Stir until combined, then cook until mixture thickens, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
- Place shredded cheese and cream cheese in large bowl. Microwave 1 minute, then stir and microwave one additional minute.
- Stir in eggs, almond flour, salt, and xanthan gum. Mix until dough forms.
- Use disher or cookie scoop to scoop dough into 12 balls. Flatten each ball into discs, each approximately ¼-inch thick.
- Dollop 1-3 tablespoons of filling into center of each dough disc, being careful not to overfill.
- Fold top edge of dough disc over filling to meet bottom edge of dough, forming a half moon shape. Press edges together with tines of fork or pinch to seal. Place folded empanada on baking sheet and repeat until all empanadas are folded in half. Lightly brush outside of empanadas with egg wash.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown outside and cooked through. Remove from oven and serve warm.
Notes
- Yellow Onion: Some strict keto-followers don’t eat onion since it’s not technically keto-friendly, but some keto-followers do use it. Totally fine! You can skip it in this recipe if you want, and it’ll save you a carb or so overall.
- Green Bell Peppers: Green peppers have fewer carbs than red, yellow, and orange ones. To shave off another carb overall, you can leave out the bell pepper if you want.
- Shredded Cheese: Use fresh mozzarella and shred it yourself to avoid the extra fillers (and carbs) that are in pre-shredded cheese!
- Tomato Paste: Use an organic tomato paste with no added sugar. The only sugars should come from the tomatoes themselves.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1empanada, Calories: 265kcal, Carbohydrates: 7g, Protein: 15g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 8g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 85mg, Sodium: 273mg, Potassium: 91mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 375IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 156mg, Iron: 1mg, Net Carbs: 5g
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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