• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

RecipeTin Eats

Fast Prep, Big Flavours

Small book

My cookbook "Dinner" now available!

  • My RecipeTin
  • My cookbook!
  • Recipes
  • Recipes By Category
    • Christmas ⭐️
      • Starters
      • Mains
      • Sides: Warm & Hearty
      • Sides: Light & Fresh
      • Desserts
      • Breads
      • Christmas Leftovers
    • Iconic + cult classics
    • Mains
      • Chicken
        • Chicken mince
      • Beef Recipes
        • Ground Beef (Mince)
      • Pork
      • Lamb
      • Turkey
      • Shrimp / Prawns
      • Salmon
      • Fish recipes
      • Salad Meals
    • Quick and Easy
    • Soups
    • One Pot
    • Stews
    • Slow Cooker
    • Sides
      • All
      • Salads & veg
      • Show Off Salads
      • Rice (all)
      • Fried rice recipes
      • Rice (plain)
      • Potato
    • Pasta
      • All
      • Pasta bakes
      • Pasta salads
    • Sweet
      • Cakes
      • Candy
      • Cheesecakes
      • Cupcakes & Muffins
      • Cookies
      • Puddings & Cosy Desserts
      • Bite Size
      • Pies
      • Slices & Bars
      • Frosting & Icing
      • Ice cream
    • Cuisine
      • Asian
        • All
        • Stir fries
        • Noodles
        • Soups
        • Chinese
        • Japanese
        • Korean
        • Thai
        • Vietnamese
      • French
      • Greek
      • Indian
      • Italian
      • Mediterranean
      • Mexican
      • Middle Eastern
      • South American
    • Dietary
      • Gluten Free
      • Low Calorie
      • Vegetarian
    • Other Categories
      • BBQ
      • Breakfast
      • Burgers
      • Cocktails
      • Party Foods
      • Rice Recipes
      • Roasts
      • Sandwiches & Sliders
    • Cookbook recipes
  • Collections
  • About
    • Me
    • RecipeTin Meals
    • Free Recipe Books
    • Contact
    • Nitty Gritty
      • Policy: Use of Recipes & Images
      • Privacy & Disclosure
Home Dips

Empanada sauce

By:Nagi
Published:28 Apr '23Updated:16 Aug '23
2 Comments
Recipe v Dozer v

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!

Dipping Beef empanada in sauce

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!

Tray of freshly baked Beef empanadas

Empanada sauce with empanadas

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.

Empanada sauce ingredients
  • 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:

  1. Roast the tomato and garlic until you get nice charred edges which gives the sauce its special smokey flavour; then

  2. Blitz!

Making Empanada sauce
Roast the tomatoes until charred on the edges for a lovely smokey flavour
Making Empanada sauce
Blitzing empanada sauce
Sauce for Beef empanadas
The consistency is like a salsa dip

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

Dipping empanada in Empanada sauce

Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.

Empanada sauce with empanadas

Empanada dipping sauce

Author: Nagi
Sauce
South American
Tap or hover to scale
Print
This is a dipping sauce to accompany the beef empanadas that I published today, though it can be used for any type of empanadas – or used as a dip for corn chips, veggie sticks etc!
Loosely based on a traditional Colombian sauce called hogao. Makes enough for 1 batch beef empanadas.

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

  • Beef empanadas

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:

Leftovers will keep for 5 days in the fridge. or freezer for 3 months.
Nutrition for whole batch.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 182cal (9%)Carbohydrates: 13g (4%)Protein: 3g (6%)Fat: 15g (23%)Saturated Fat: 2g (13%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 10gSodium: 596mg (26%)Potassium: 621mg (18%)Fiber: 3g (13%)Sugar: 7g (8%)Vitamin A: 2057IU (41%)Vitamin C: 38mg (46%)Calcium: 39mg (4%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: empanada sauce
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

Life of Dozer

He doesn’t realise this sauce comes with beefy empanadas. You snooze, you lose Dozer!

Previous Post
11 years of Dozer!
Next Post
Beef empanadas

Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

Read More

Free Recipe eBooks

Join my free email list to receive THREE free cookbooks!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Cooked this? Rate this recipe!




2 Comments

  1. Danny says

    September 3, 2023 at 10:53 pm

    Recipe video please!

    Reply
  2. Melinda says

    May 5, 2023 at 2:49 am

    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!

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

Free Recipe eBooks

Join my free email list to receive THREE free cookbooks!

Meet Dozer

Official taste tester of RecipeTin Eats! Meet Dozer
As Featured On
  • Goodfood
  • Food Network
  • Better Homes Gardens
  • Taste
  • Nine
  • Network 10
  • BuzzFeed
  • Daily Telegraph
  • Women's Day

Never miss a recipe!

Subscribe to my newsletter and receive 3 FREE ebooks!

Subscribe
Recipes
  • All Recipes
  • By Category
  • Collections
About
  • About Nagi
  • About Dozer
  • RecipeTin Meals
Related
  • RecipeTin Japan
  • Food Bloggers Central
Help
  • Contact
  • Image Use Policy
© RecipeTin Eats 2023
  • Privacy Policy & Terms
Site Credits
Maintained by Zao Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled
All Rights Reserved

Subscribe to my newsletter

Sign up and receive 3 FREE EBOOKS!