Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club- Sweet Potato and Black Bean Empanadas

This month's Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club theme was chosen by Jerry. He wanted us to have a menu full of spooky foods, that were either orange or black.

He started us off with 'Dracula's Revenge' (Baked Penne with Sausage and Garlic),

Sandi added Devilish Eggs,

Jamie picked Devilishly Devine Peanut Butter Caramel Corn,

I went with Sweet Potato and Black Bean Empanadas,

Val chose Roasted Squash (Pumpkin) Soup with Turkey Croquettes (Ghosts),

and Roz finished the meal with Chocolate Spiderweb Cookies.

I first noticed these empanadas last year and eagerly tore the page from my issue of Cooking Light. I haven't ever really been a big fan of sweet potatoes, but this savory take really made me think that it could be the turning point. Somehow, I never made them, but when the orange and black food theme came around this month, I knew they would be perfect. Orange because of the sweet potatoes and the black beans for the black part. I figured my kids would be scared to eat them, so that could count for the spooky part.

The dough for the empanadas is really easy to mix together, but it does need to chill for an hour, so make sure to add that time to your prep. The filling is fairly easy to make, if you already have your sweet potato cooked, mashed and/or pureed. I had pureed a bunch of sweet potatoes that I baked in the oven a few weeks ago and frozen the puree in little ziploc bags, so all I had to do was defrost it and I was ready to go. I made a change to the filling, just because I wanted my kids to be able to handle the heat factor- I reduced the amount of chili powder by about half.

The dough was really easy to roll out and I decided to use a fork to seal my empanadas instead of using an egg white. When I tasted one of these, I was really surprised by how good they were. The combination of spices, cilantro, black beans, etc. really took away the sweetness that usually bothers me with sweet potatoes and added a nice spice/warmth. I really, really liked these. One of my daughters also surprised me by absolutely loving them. She liked them so much that she asked me to pack a couple for her lunch the next day. My other 2 children were not big fans, but they ate them anyway. I thought they were good warm or cold. I had a few leftover and ate one cold the next day for lunch. It was fabulous. So, I am happy to report that this recipe has really changed my outlook on sweet potatoes. I hope you check out the rest of our fabulously spooky menu!