Easy Beef Empanadas

While, yes, I love to cook, I will generally cut corners whenever possible. I should probably call these 'lazy empanadas' because I didn't feel like making my own dough or cutting the puff pastry into circles to make this delish pocket of meat.

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 medium russet potato, diced
1 teaspoon cumin
2 large pinches crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste
1 (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed


Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

In large skillet, cook the potato with a little oil and the onion. When potatoes are close to cooked, add the ground beef and brown. Drain and return to skillet.

Stir in cumin, crushed red pepper, paprika, white vinegar, salt, and pepper until evenly seasoned.

Now, the puff pastry sheets that I purchase come in 2 rectangular sheets that are tri-folded. When you unfold them, they may seperate. This design of pastry sheet doesn't make it easy to create the traditional half-moon empanada shape. Instead, I break the sheets apart into a total of 3 smaller sheets consisting each of 2 tri-folded sections - you will have to press together the long ends of 2 sections to create the third one. If you're patient and don't mind a little mess, you could break these all apart into 6 sections - they will just be a little narrow, making it harder to contain the meat well.

After separating into 3 smaller sheets, fill each halfway full with the meat mixture, keeping in mind that you will be folding one end to the other. Fold one edge over to the other, and press to seal the edges well.

Bake ~20 minutes until golden brown.

Makes 3 large empanadas, which is about 6 servings.