This is an empanada sauce created especially for serving with the homemade empanadas I shared today. Loosely based on a traditional Colombian sauce called hogao, it has a wickedly good smokey flavour from char-roasting tomatoes in the oven. Use leftovers as a dip!
I’m a firm believer than empanadas should be so great, you want to grab them straight out of the oven and eat them plain. Make the beef empanadas – and you will! Hot and crispy on the outside, juicy and flavourful on the inside, it’s everything an empanada should be!
But it is nice to have something wet to dip empanadas into because the reality is that there is only so juicy you can make the empanada filling without compromising the crispiness of the base. Empanadas are not like, say, Aussie meat pies which have molten gravy fillings.
While the beef empanada recipe includes various simple sauce options, this empanada sauce was created especially and is by far the best!
Ingredients in empanada sauce
This empanada sauce is based on a traditional Colombian sauce called hogao and is made with tomato that’s roasted until charred for beautiful smoky flavour.
Tomatoes – 2 medium ones, about 125g/4oz each.
Garlic cloves – Peel the skin off but keep them whole.
Spices – cumin for flavour and cayenne pepper for a warm buzz.
Sugar – just a tiny amount, to balance the flavour
Lime juice – for freshness/sour. Substitute with lemon or a vinegar (it’s only a small amount so substitutions are flexible)
Green onion – for a bit of freshness and nice bits of green in the sauce
How to make Empanada sauce
Two simple steps:
Roast the tomato and garlic until you get nice charred edges which gives the sauce its special smokey flavour; then
Blitz!
Serve with fresh, homemade empanadas.
Weep with joy.
No recipe video for this one because it’s an extra recipe for the beef empanadas and relatively straight forward. Though I can never resist if there’s demand, so leave your request below if you’d like a recipe video! – Nagi x
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Empanada dipping sauce
Ingredients
- 2 medium tomatoes (125g/4oz each), cut in half and core cut out
- 2 garlic cloves , kept whole, peeled
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/8 tsp ground cumin
- 1/8 tsp ground cayenne or pure chilli (not US chili powder mix)
- 1/8 tsp white sugar
- 1/4 tsp cooking/kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tsp lime juice (sub lemon or vinegar)
- 2 tbsp sliced green onion
Serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F (200°C fan).
- Roast tomato 20 min – Toss the tomatoes and garlic with the olive oil in a bowl. Place the tomatoes on the tray, cut side up, then roast for 20 minutes.
- Roast garlic 15 min – Add garlic to the tray and roast for another 15 minutes until the edges of the tomato are browned. Remove from oven and cool on tray.
- Blitz – Transfer to a container that just fits the head of a stick blender. Add all remaining ingredients except the green onion. Blitz until smooth – about 5 seconds. Add the green onion and blitz until it's finely chopped.
- Serve with empanadas – or corn chips, vegetable sticks, bread!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
He doesn’t realise this sauce comes with beefy empanadas. You snooze, you lose Dozer!
Recipe video please!
Sooooo good! Made the filling and dough Wednesday. Today, Thursday, made the shells and filled them. Crimped, rather than edged them. They are beautiful and so tasty.
Thank you Nagi! The empanada sauce is a must!! Very, very tasty!