Samosa
Samosa is a dish that originates from Indian cuisine. It looks like a small dumpling stuffed mainly with a mixture of vegetables and spices. I only make vegetarian samosas, however, you can add chicken or cheese to the filling. In India, they use paneer cheese, which is somewhat similar to cottage cheese.
The first time I made samosas, unfortunately, I opted for the completely wrong pastry. Back then, I decided not to make my samosa pastry at home, but to buy it. The problem is that it’s hard to get samosa pastry in stores. It does not matter anyway, because preparing it at home is not a problem but I did not know it back then – now although I am richer with this knowledge.
The samosas from the recipe below are made with a potato and peas filling. It is also worth mentioning that the taste of the filling can only be obtained by adding spices from Indian cuisine to it. If you only add salt and pepper to the potatoes and peas, let’s face it, the samosas will not resemble the genuine ones.
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Ingredients for samosas.
Samosa pastry:
- 200 g all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of caraway seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 4 tablespoons of sunflower oil
- lukewarm water
Vegetable filling:
- 500 g boiled potatoes
- 50 g frozen peas
- a few flakes of chili pepper or a spoon of freshly chopped chili
- 2 cardamom seeds
- 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 small onion
- 1/3 teaspoon of turmeric
- 1/3 teaspoon of powdered sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon of roasted caraway seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon of powdered mango
- a few leaves of fresh mint
- 3 tablespoons of peanuts
- salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
Additionally: sunflower oil for frying the samosas and a little cold water for joining the pastry.
How to make vegetarian samosas.
Samosa pastry: pour flour into a bowl, add oil, cumin and salt to it. Use your fingers to mix the ingredients until the point they start sticking together. When the ingredients slowly come together, add lukewarm water in small rivulets. Add enough water to give the pastry a soft texture, something resembling a consistency of a dumpling dough. Knead the pastry very carefully, then set it aside for 30 minutes.
After that, divide it into small balls, each three centimetres in diameter. Roll them out to a thickness of 1-2 millimetres. If you use a glass board for rolling the pasty, you do not need to sprinkle it with flour. If you do it on a wooden board, it may be necessary to sprinkle the pastry with additional flour. Cut the rolled balls in half so that two semi-circles are formed.
Filling: boil the potatoes, cool them down and when still lukewarm, mash them with a potato masher. The mashed potatoes should not have the consistency of a smooth puree, but still have some small chunky pieces in.
Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan and add mashed garlic, chopped chili, ginger and onion to it. Fry for a few seconds, then add the dry spices (cardamom, turmeric, sweet paprika, cumin seeds, garam masala, coriander and mango powder). Fry for another few seconds and add potatoes and peas. Keep cooking for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally with a spoon. At the end of cooking, add salt according to taste, chopped peanuts and mint leaves. Let the finished filling cool down.
Assembling the samosas: take a semicircle of the pastry and place it in your hands with the round part facing up (the base of the pastry is the flat side where the pastry was cut). Gently fold the pastry in half so that the right side overlaps the left side (a few millimetres of the pastry should overlap).
Brush the left side of the pastry with water (take a little water on your finger), put the pastry on the wet part and stick with your fingers. You should create something like an open purse or an open cone. The top of the pouch is not to be glued, only the sides. Fill the cones with the prepared filling. When well filled, fold the top of the pastry, brush gently with water and stick together. It’s a good idea to practice doing samosa a few times. They don’t have a perfect shape, the most important thing is that they taste nice.
Heat up the oil in a large frying pan or a pot. When hot, reduce the heat to medium and start putting in the samosas. Fry them on both sides until golden brown. Place the fried samosas on a paper towel to drain the excess oil. I served my samosas with mango chutney.
Good to know when making vegetable samosas.
If you don’t have mango powder or peanuts at home, nothing happens, you can skip those ingredients. However, it is important to add the remaining ingredients if possible.
At first, assembling the samosas may seem difficult, but the more you prepare them, the more skill you will have at making them.
Do you like dishes made from vegetables? If so, try our recipe for Cauliflower and parsley puree.
