Vegetable Samosas
Homemade vegetable samosas with a crisp yogurt-enriched pastry wrapped around a spiced potato, carrot, and pea filling, fried golden and served with mango chutney. A classic Indian appetizer made from scratch.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
25 minREADY
60 minCrisp on the outside, soft and spiced within, these vegetable samosas are the kind of street snack worth making from scratch. The pastry skips shortcuts: flour bound with melted butter and a little yogurt, which keeps it tender enough to crisp up shatteringly thin when fried.
The filling is the heart of it. Soft potato and carrot meet a fragrant base of onion, garlic, and fresh ginger, then coriander, cumin, turmeric, and cayenne get toasted into a paste before the vegetables go in. Blooming the spices this way wakes up their oils, so the filling tastes deep and warm rather than dusty.
Sweet green peas and a squeeze of lemon brighten everything at the end.
Shape them into the classic cone, fry until deep golden, and serve hot with cool mango chutney for dipping.
Chef Tips
- Toast the spices into a paste before adding the vegetables. That two-minute step is what separates fragrant samosas from flat ones.
- Cool the filling completely before shaping. Warm filling makes the dough slack and tricky to seal.
- Seal every edge firmly with a dab of water. A loose seam lets oil seep in and the samosa burst while frying.
- Keep the oil steady and hot so the pastry crisps fast without going greasy, then drain on paper towels.
Variations
- Add a handful of paneer cubes or cooked lentils to the filling for extra protein.
- For a lighter version, brush with oil and bake or air-fry until golden instead of deep-frying.
Ingredients
Directions
To Make Dough:
Sift flour and salt together into a mixing bowl.
Add the melted butter and yogurt and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough resembles a coarse, crumbly meal.
Add cold water by the tablespoonful until the dough can be gathered into a ball.
Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Shape into a ball and sit in a loosely covered bowl while you prepare the filling.
To Prepare Filling:
Cook potatoes and carrot in water until soft.
Drain well, and set aside.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet, and the onion, garlic, and ginger and sauté until soft.
Add salt, coriander, cumin, tumeric, and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until mixture forms a paste and continue cooking for 2 minutes.
Add the drained vegs, and cook over med high heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.
Carefully stir in thawed peas, add water and lemon juice, reduce heat to low, cover and cook another 5 minutes.
Remove filling from heat, and cool.
To shape the samosas: Pinch off enough dough to make a ball 1 inch in diameter.
On lightly floured surface, roll into a 3½ to 4” circle. Cut the circle in half, moisten one of the edges and fold in over on itself and press to seal, making a cone shape.
Fill the cone with vegetable mix.
Press to seal.
Or, cut into squares, fill, and fold into triangles.
Heat oil in deep fryer to 370℉ (185℃) and fry samosas, removing them as soon as they are brown and crispy.
Drain on paper towel, and keep warm in the oven until you have fried them all.
*Filled samosas can be refrigerated in an air-tight container up to 3 hours before frying, but not overnight.
Serve as an appetizer, with mango chutney as a side.
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