Empanadas are on a roll. Not literally, of course.
The deep-fried (and sometimes baked) turnovers, once a rare find in the area, are turning up on more menus every year. Usually filled with savory fillings like beef, chicken and cheese, empanadas can also be sweet. They are popular throughout South America and up into the Caribbean.
Hamilton-based food trucks Hotpanada and Chic Gourmet Empanadas have opened for business in recent years and built up loyal followings. Hopewell-based Catalina Empanadas, which makes a baked, Chilean style empanada, can be found in several seasonal farmers markets in the area.
Now one empanada vendor has found a permanent home at the year-round Trenton Farmers Market: Jasmine’s Nadas, which opened up a stand in the market in 2023 and moved into the market last month.
Owner and chef Jasmine Wesley comes from a Puerto Rican background and says her fried empanadas are made in the Puerto Rican style.
“In Puerto Rico, we call them pastelillos,” she says. “But every time I was saying that, people were like, ‘What?’ So we were like, ‘Let’s just call them empanadas,’ and then I shortened it to ‘Jasmine’s Nadas.’”
Jasmine’s Nadas offers traditional fillings like beef, chicken and cheese in the empanadas. But Wesley is not afraid to get creative. She estimates that she has made more than 50 varieties over the years, including pepperoni pizza, garlic potato, butternut squash and chicken cordon bleu. She also makes dessert empanadas, such as her apple pie and cherry pie varieties.
“I grew up in Point Pleasant, so I have a lot of different influences,” she says. “And we like pork in Puerto Rico, so we do a lot of things with pork as well.”
Wesley, who worked for many years as an accountant, has always enjoyed cooking. For parties and potluck dinners, she would often make empanadas to take with her. Friends and co-workers who tried them told her they were good enough that she should start an empanada business.
After she was laid off in the early days of the pandemic, Wesley decided to just do that.
She started out by making empanadas to sell at fairs and festivals in the Point Pleasant Beach area.
“I was literally spamming mom groups on Facebook with my menu for about a year,” she says. “Trying to get the word out any way I could.”
In October 2022, she got an invitation from the New Egypt Flea Market to set up a stand there. Then last spring, Trenton Farmers Market manager Bill Kearney contacted Wesley about establishing a second location there.
She opened in August. That proved successful enough that Kearney offered her the spot recently vacated by The Lunchbox.
The new spot’s full kitchen has allowed Wesley to add tacos, burritos and quesadillas to the menu, along with some other Puerto Rican specialties like papas rellenas — a potato croquette stuffed with meat.
While Jasmine’s Nadas does not have tables for sit-down service at this time, she said her husband is beginning work on a new paver patio that she hopes will be completed in time for customers to sit outside in the warmer weather and enjoy their food.
“When people walk into the lobby, they will see my daughter or my cousin. If they look in the kitchen, they will see my husband or me,” she says. “When you walk in, I want you to feel like you’re walking into my living room.”
The Trenton Farmers Market is open Thursdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., but because Jasmine’s Nadas now has its own entrance, Wesley says, she plans to stay open later, perhaps as late as 8:30 or 9 p.m. Web: facebook.com/jasminesnadas.
In other TFM news, The Borscht Belt Delicatessen has announced that it will soon open a stand in the market. The Jewish-style deli started out in the Stockton Market in 2021 before moving to Newtown, Pennsylvania, last year.
The Borscht Belt is fronted by celebrity chef Nicky Liberato, the former co-host of the Netflix show “Restaurants on the Edge.” The deli menu includes favorites like bagels with lox, Reuben sandwiches, matzoh ball soup and knishes. The farmers market menu has not yet been revealed.
The Nassau Park Pavillion has welcomed a couple of fast-casual chains in recent months:
Bluestone Lane, a New York-based café looking to popularize Australian coffee in the U.S., and Just Salad, an 18-year-old chain with eight locations in New Jersey. Web: bluestonelane.com.
Despite its name, Just Salad has wraps, soups, smoothies and “warm bowls” like the chicken fajita bowl and spicy tofu crunch bowl. Just Salad diners can filter the menu by categories such as keto, vegan, paleo, gluten-free and climatarian. Web: justsalad.com.
Across the street at Quaker Bridge Mall is the recently opened DoneRight Doner Kebab, which has the look of a chain restaurant, but isn’t — yet. The fast-casual, 100% halal restaurant specializes in Turkish street food, offering chicken, lamb and falafel dishes, familiar appetizers such as hummus and baba ganoush, and franchising opportunities. Web: donerightdk.com.
And over in Pennington, Gretalia Hospitality Group, the folks behind PJ’s Pancakes, Osteria Procaccini, More than Q and Mi España, have opened the chain-friendly concept Union Boil Co. in the Pennington Shopping Center.
Union Boil has lobster rolls, crab cakes, clam chowder, oysters and everything else you would expect a seafood boil restaurant to have — including the $250 Union Boil platter, which comes with jumbo shrimp, crab legs, crawfish, andouille sausage, corn and potatoes and serves six to eight people. Web: unionboil.com.
Jasmine's Nadas offers Puerto Rican-style empanadas with traditional and creative fillings, from beef or chicken to reuben, garlic potato, and apple pie. (Facebook Photo),
A warm chicken bowl from Just Salad in Nassau Park Pavillion.,
