North America → Curaçao → Willemstad
🍢 SNACK
Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers)
Crescents of soft, slightly sweet dough folded over grated Gouda, crimped and deep-fried until puffed and golden, the breakfast and party snack of Curaçao.
Curaçaoan · medium · serves 6
prep 40 min · cook 20 min · plus 30 min hands-off time
~674 cal · 20g protein · 50g carbs · 43g fat · 2g fiber · 3g sugars · 21g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Pastechi is the snack of the ABC islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, and on Curaçao it is sold at every bakery, snack bar and roadside stand. Big ones are bought in the morning as breakfast on the go with a cup of coffee; small ones, about ten centimetres across, are made by the tray for parties.
It is a cousin of the Latin American empanada, and the islands' mixed heritage shows in its fillings. Pastechi di keshi, filled with Dutch cheese, Gouda or Edam, is the most popular, but there are also pastechi karni with spiced minced beef, onion, sweet pepper and raisins, chicken and fish versions, and some cooks add a touch of Indonesian sambal. What makes it pastechi is the dough, made with flour, butter, egg and a little sugar, soft and faintly sweet against the salty filling.
The dough is rolled thin, cut into rounds, filled, folded into half-moons and crimped firmly with a fork so nothing leaks, then fried until puffed and golden. They are best eaten warm, when the cheese is still soft and stretchy.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 g cold butter, cubed
- 1 egg, beaten
- about 1/2 cup cold water
- 300 g Gouda or Edam cheese, grated, traditional Dutch Gouda and Edam are usually made with animal rennet; strict vegetarians should use a vegetarian-rennet cheese
- 1 l vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
- 1Mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the butter until it looks like coarse crumbs.
- 2Add the egg, then the cold water a little at a time, and knead for about 5 minutes into a smooth, soft dough that does not stick. Wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
- 3Roll the dough out thinly, about 3 mm, and cut rounds of 10 to 12 cm with a saucer or cutter. Re-roll the scraps.
- 4Put a heaped tablespoon of cheese on one half of each round, brush the edge with water, fold into a half-moon and press out the air. Crimp the edges firmly with a fork.✎ Chef’s noteSeal them well and keep the cheese away from the edge; a leaking pastechi spits in the oil.
- 5Heat the oil in a deep pan to 170 to 175C (340 to 350F) and fry the pastechi 2 or 3 at a time for 3 to 4 minutes a side, until puffed and golden. Drain on paper and serve warm.
Curaçaoan tradition (shared across Aruba and Bonaire).
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Willemstad. The account of keshi yena's origin is that enslaved people in the Dutch West Indies filled the discarded rinds of Gouda and Edam with meat scraps, and keshi is simply Papiamento for the Dutch kaas. Aruba makes it as much as Curacao does, so it is shared rather than local to this harbour.
🗺️
Curaçao. Curaçao's Dutch-Caribbean cuisine is famous for keshi yena, a shell of Edam cheese stuffed with spiced meat. Iguana stew, funchi cornmeal, and Latin, African, and Dutch roots define the ABC-island table.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Curaçao
Keshi YenaA shell of Edam or Gouda cheese stuffed with spiced chicken, olives, capers, and raisins, then baked until molten.
Arepa di PampunaSweet Curaçaoan pumpkin pancakes, spiced with cinnamon and anise and fried until lacy-edged, a Dutch-Caribbean morning treat.
KadushiA thick, green cactus soup with salted fish and okra, a truly local Curaçaoan dish born of the arid island.
Browse all Curaçao recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Curaçao meal
Awa di LamunchiDrink
Bolo PretuDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Sigara Böreği (Turkish Crispy Cheese Rolls)Turkey
Tequeños (Venezuelan Cheese Sticks)Venezuela
Orelletes (Andorran Fried Sugar Pastries)Andorra
Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs)France
Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries)Chile
Kleinur (Icelandic Twisted Doughnuts)Iceland
Frequently asked questions
What is Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers)?
Crescents of soft, slightly sweet dough folded over grated Gouda, crimped and deep-fried until puffed and golden, the breakfast and party snack of Curaçao.
Where does Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers) come from?
Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers) is a Curaçaoan dish from Willemstad, Curaçao.
Can Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers) take to make?
About 1 h 30 min in all: 40 minutes prep and 20 minutes cooking, plus 30 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.