Fall root vegetable pockets are the perfect cure for a rainy day

This past weekend the weather in DC has been super icky.  The temperature dropped down into the low 40's and it has been raining non-stop since Friday.  It was one of those weekends when you just want to stay in and watch movies all weekend.  Unfortunately, I have a ton of school work so I had to fit in a little business law in between HBO flicks.  I did manage to venture out of the house on Saturday to hit up my favorite store, Whole Foods. Thanks to the generous whole foods gift card from my Aunt Aty and Uncle Howard, this week's empanadas are sponsored by them! I wasn't sure what type of empanada I was going to make when I walked into the store, but almost immediately after walking into the produce section an idea came to me.

One of my favorite things about the fall and winter are all of the wonderful root vegetables.  I was wondering the aisles and I passed by the most adorable bunch of whole carrots.  I was quickly reminded of this wonderful roasted carrots recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.  Very simple, just roasted carrots or parsnips with a little olive oil, salt and fresh dill.   I decided I would do a little twist on this recipe.  Also, since I was not having anyone over to enjoy my pockets, I wanted to make a dish I could eat during the week on its own. So, I grabbed the carrots, a bag of little red potatoes, a few shallots, a bunch of fresh dill, and what I thought were parsnips.  When I was done with my shopping I headed to the register to check out.  As I was watching the checkout girl ring everything up, I inspected my bunch of "parsnips".  I soon realized I had not grabbed parsnips, but Daikon.  This would just not work.  I have never even cooked with Daikon!  So I sprinted back over to produce while my other items were being scanned, returned the Daikon and perused the aisle for parsnips.  Unfortunately, after asking a produce man, it was made clear that they were out of parsnips.  Carrots, potatoes and shallots would have to do!

After unloading my other groceries, I decided to get going on my empanadas.  First thing I needed to do was chop up my veggies so I could roast them up. 

After chopping everything up in to 1/2 inch pieces, I put everything on one of my fabulous baking sheets. I tossed everything with a generous amount of olive oil, some fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground pepper and about half of a bunch of dill finely chopped up. 

 

I had preheated the oven to 375 while I was chopping up the veggies. I put them in the oven and after about 30 minutes I gave them a good toss.  I then cranked up the heat to 400 so that the veggies would get nice and caramelized.   I waited about 20 more minutes, and I took the vegetables out of the oven to cool a bit.  My apartment smelled of wonderful roasted vegetables, and I was definitely ready to give them a taste.

The vegetables were out of this world. Salty, caramelized, bold flavors, perfect to stuff into some dough pockets!  As I mentioned, I didnt have anyone coming over, so I decided to just make one empanada.  While at Whole Foods I found some new organic empanada dough for baking in the freezer aisle. I took one circle out of the freezer to defrost.  Once it was defrosted, and the veggies had cooled down a bit, I put my empanada together. Since I was only making one empanada, I didnt want to waste a whole egg on an egg wash.  Instead I brushed the top of the empanada with some of the flavorful oil from the vegetables.  After about 15 minutes in the oven at 375 my pocket was ready.  I took one bite and it was pretty tasty.  Then I decided to try it with some of my balsamic reduction I had in the fridge.  Mission accomplished. Delicious, hearty, rainy day empanada done!