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Empanadas de Viento (Ecuadorian Fried Cheese Empanadas)
Puffy fried half-moons of buttery dough filled with fresh cheese and chopped white onion, dusted with sugar while hot so every bite is salty and sweet.
Ecuadorian · medium · serves 6
prep 40 min · cook 20 min · plus 30 min hands-off time
~708 cal · 19g protein · 78g carbs · 35g fat · 3g fiber · 21g sugars · 16g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Empanadas de viento, wind empanadas, are named for the air inside them. As they fry, the dough puffs up into a crisp, blistered pillow and the cheese melts away from the walls, leaving a hollow. They are one of the best-loved snacks of the Ecuadorian highlands, sold at markets, fairs, bakeries and street stalls in Quito, Cuenca and Ambato, and made at home for an afternoon merienda.
The filling is simple: quesillo or fresh white cheese, crumbled or grated, often with finely chopped cebolla blanca, the long white spring onion of the Andes. The dough is wheat flour worked with butter and a little baking powder, rolled thin and cut into rounds. What surprises visitors is the finish: the empanadas are showered with sugar the moment they leave the oil, and the sweet crust against the salty, stringy cheese is the whole point.
They are eaten hot, with a cup of black coffee, café con leche or thick Ecuadorian hot chocolate, and in early November with colada morada, the spiced purple corn drink of the Day of the Dead.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut-, egg- 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 (425 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar (for the dough)
- 115 g (1/2 cup) cold butter, cut into pieces
- 2/3 cup (about 160 ml) cold water, sparkling mineral water also works
- 250 g (about 2 1/2 cups) quesillo, queso fresco or mozzarella, grated or crumbled
- 1 cup white spring onion (cebolla blanca), white parts finely chopped
- 1 l vegetable oil, for frying
- 1/2 cup sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- 1Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and tablespoon of sugar in a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until it looks like coarse sand.
- 2Add the cold water a little at a time, mixing, until the dough comes together. Knead briefly until smooth, cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- 3Mix the cheese with the chopped onion. Roll the dough out thinly, about 3 mm, and cut rounds of about 12 cm with a saucer. Re-roll the scraps.
- 4Put a heaped tablespoon of filling in the middle of each round, fold into a half-moon, press out the air, and seal the edges firmly with a fork or by twisting them into a rope.✎ Chef’s noteSeal well and keep the filling off the edges. Cheese that leaks into the oil spatters and the empanada will not puff.
- 5Heat the oil in a deep pan to 170 to 180C (340 to 350F). Fry 2 or 3 at a time for 1 to 2 minutes a side, spooning oil over the tops, until puffed and golden.
- 6Drain on paper for a moment, sprinkle generously with sugar while still hot, and serve at once.
Ecuadorian highland tradition (Quito and the Sierra).
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Pichincha (Andes). Ecuador's Andean Pichincha, around Quito, cooks highland food, hearty potato-and-cheese locro soup, hominy, and hornado roast pork. Altitude and Indigenous roots define its table.
🗺️
Ecuador. Ecuadorian food shifts from coast to Andes, bright ceviches and plantain on the coast, hearty potato and hominy soups in the highlands. Llapingachos, encebollado, and aji sauces define its regional variety.
🌍
South America. The Andes are the potato's homeland and still hold something like four thousand native varieties, selected over thousands of years for altitude, colour and texture. The high plateau also worked out how to keep them: frozen overnight in the cold, trodden to press the water out, then dried in the sun into chuno, which stores for years.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Ecuador
LlapingachosGolden potato patties with melting cheese centers, griddled and served with peanut sauce and pickled onions.
Bolón de VerdeA ball of mashed green plantain stuffed with cheese, pan-crisped golden, the filling coastal breakfast of Ecuador.
EncebolladoA brothy tuna-and-cassava soup topped with a tangle of pickled red onion, Ecuador's midday cure-all.
Browse all Ecuador recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it an Ecuador meal
Colada MoradaDrink
Higos con QuesoDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Empanadas de Viento (Ecuadorian Fried Cheese Empanadas)?
Puffy fried half-moons of buttery dough filled with fresh cheese and chopped white onion, dusted with sugar while hot so every bite is salty and sweet.
Where does Empanadas de Viento (Ecuadorian Fried Cheese Empanadas) come from?
Empanadas de Viento (Ecuadorian Fried Cheese Empanadas) is an Ecuadorian dish from Pichincha (Andes), Ecuador.
Can Empanadas de Viento (Ecuadorian Fried Cheese Empanadas) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Empanadas de Viento (Ecuadorian Fried Cheese Empanadas) 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 Empanadas de Viento (Ecuadorian Fried Cheese Empanadas) 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 Empanadas de Viento (Ecuadorian Fried Cheese Empanadas) 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.
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