Colombian Fried Chickpea Pasties (Pasteles de Garbanzo)

Crispy, fried dough stuffed with a soft, spiced chickpea filling and served with pickled red onion salsa. Colombia loves its deep-fried treats and this highly underrated pasty deserves at least a spot in the top 3. The recipe is vegan.

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Resting the dough 2 30

Total Time 3 10

Course Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine Colombian

Servings pasteles

Equipment

Rolling Pin

Ingredients

oil, for frying

Dough

240 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
120 ml water, plus 1-4 tablespoons more (1/2 cup)
salt

Filling

230 g canned chickpeas
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 scallions, chopped finely
1 clove of garlic, chopped finely
1 tsp achiote powder (omit if you can't find it, it gives a red color to the mixture)
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tomato, diced finely
salt and pepper, generously

Pickled red onion salsa (ají de cebolla morada)

1/2 red onion, diced super finely
juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp white vinegar
3 tbsp water
1 tsp white sugar
handful chopped cilantro
salt

Instructions

Prepare the dough

Add all ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead with your hands until it forms a soft ball. If the mixture sticks to your hands, it's too wet: add some flour. If the ball doesn't hold shape and falls apart it's too dry: add some water. Cover the dough with a towel and place in the refrigerator to rest for 2 hours

Prepare the filling

In the meantime, prepare the filling. Mash up the chickpeas with a fork and set aside.
Cook onion and garlic in vegetable oil on a low to medium heat until soft (5-10 minutes). Add cumin and achiote and cook for an additional 3 minutes until fragrant. Add diced tomatoes, pepper and salt. Cook until the liquid evaporated (10-15 minutes). Lastly, add the mashed chickpeas and mix well. Season well with salt and pepper. Let cool and divide the filling into 6 balls, a bit smaller than the size of a golf ball

Shape the pasteles

Take the dough out of the fridge. On a clean surface sprinkled with some flour, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough as thinly as you can (the dough is tough and it might take some work rolling it out thinly). Use a cookie cutter or a bowl to cut out 12 circles (diameter of about 10 cm). Stretch out the circles of dough even a bit more with your hands
Place a ball of filling onto 1 circle. Brush the edges with water and place a second circle on top. Seal with your fingers, making sure you press out the air around the filling. Close by pressing a fork into the dough all around.
Repeat for the other pasties and place in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to rest

Prepare onion salsa (ají de cebolla morada)

Mix together all the ingredients of the red onion salsa except the cilantro and salt in a small pot. Bring to a boil, turn low and let simmer for 2 minutes. Pour in a bowl and let cool. Add salt and cilantro

Fry the pasteles

Heat up the oil in the frying pan. Fry the pasteles on medium heat for about 7-10 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. They will float, therefore turn them halfway in order to cook them evenly. You probably have to fry them in batches. Place on paper towels to drain excess oil.
Serve with pickled red onion salsa or ají picante (Colombian hot sauce)

Keyword chickpea pasties, chickpea pie, fried chickpea pies, pasteles de garbanzos, vegetarian pasties

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