diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SparkSession.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SparkSession.scala
index bd2bc1c0ad5d7..0ce514fb0f83c 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SparkSession.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SparkSession.scala
@@ -274,9 +274,7 @@ class SparkSession private(
    * @since 2.0.0
    */
   @transient
-  lazy val emptyDataFrame: DataFrame = {
-    createDataFrame(sparkContext.emptyRDD[Row].setName("empty"), StructType(Nil))
-  }
+  lazy val emptyDataFrame: DataFrame = Dataset.ofRows(self, LocalRelation())
 
   /**
    * Creates a new [[Dataset]] of type T containing zero elements.
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
index 763f92230cdc3..d2d58a83ded5d 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.TableIdentifier
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.encoders.RowEncoder
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.Uuid
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.optimizer.ConvertToLocalRelation
-import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical.{OneRowRelation, Union}
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical.{LocalRelation, OneRowRelation, Union}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.{FilterExec, QueryExecution, WholeStageCodegenExec}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.adaptive.AdaptiveSparkPlanHelper
 import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.aggregate.HashAggregateExec
@@ -2287,6 +2287,17 @@ class DataFrameSuite extends QueryTest
     }
     assert(err.getMessage.contains("cannot resolve '`d`'"))
   }
+
+  test("emptyDataFrame should be foldable") {
+    val emptyDf = spark.emptyDataFrame.withColumn("id", lit(1L))
+    val joined = spark.range(10).join(emptyDf, "id")
+    joined.queryExecution.optimizedPlan match {
+      case LocalRelation(Seq(id), Nil, _) =>
+        assert(id.name == "id")
+      case _ =>
+        fail("emptyDataFrame should be foldable")
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 case class GroupByKey(a: Int, b: Int)