Samosas are a very popular appetizer in the Indian subcontinent as well as Africa, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and Western Asia. Each with their own spin. This delicious mouth-watering pastry is filled with spices and vegetables or meats. Samosas are best accompanied with chutneys. I made beef and potato samosas with green chilli and tamarind chutney.

This delicious triangle shaped pastry can be filled with spices, potatoes, peas, cheese, onions, ground beef, ground chicken, ground lamb and lentils and more, deep-fried or baked. Samosas are a street snack in Pakistan. They are are present in the majority of events including: wedding, birthday parties and during Ramadan.

Below is the recipe! Enjoy and share your pictures if you decide to make these delicious snacks.

Samosas Recipe

*Serves 10

Homemade Samosa Sheets:

Ingredients

• 2 cups All-purpose flour
• ¼ tbsp salt
• 6 tbsp vegetable oil
• 8 tbsp water
• Some extra vegetable oil and flour for dusting and rolling

Preparation for dough

1. In bowl add flour, salt and vegetable oil, mix well with hand.

2. Knead the flour and add water bit by bit, until a soft dough. The dough should be stiff, a very soft dough will not make crispy samosas.

3. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap or a damp cloth and keep aside for 40 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into equal portions, and make into balls.
5. Take one ball, dust in flour and roll/flatten with a rolling pin into a 4 inch circle. Keep aside.

6. Repeat step 5 for four dough balls. I made 4 flatten circles from the dough balls. We can call these flatten dough circles “4-inch circles”.
7. On one 4-inch circle, apply a drizzle of oil all over and then sprinkle some flour.
8. Cover the oiled and floured 4-inch circle with the another 4-inch circle.
9. Repeat four times.

10. Now, roll them with rolling pin, all together. The dough circle should now be 7 inches.
11. Heat the frying pan in medium heat, place the 7-inch sheet on the hot pan.

12. Cook for about 30 seconds for each side.
13. Remove from the pan. Keep aside.
14. Repeat steps 5-12 until all the dough is finished. I did this twice.
15. Now you have 4 layers within your 7-inch sheet, take the layers apart from each other. The sheet will be light and see-through. I got 16 samosas sheets.
16. Stack all the samosa sheets together on a dry cutting board, using a knife, cut the sheets in half.
17. Keep inside, cover with a damp cloth.
18. Add your fillings (recipe shown below) and deep-fry the samosas.

Note: I used ready-made samosas sheets (pastry) as well, you can buy at any South Asian or Asian grocery store.

Potato fillings:

Ingredients

• 5 whole potatoes
• 2 ½ cups of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 ½ tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 ½ tbsp whole dried coriander seeds
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• ½ tbsp salt or to taste
• 2 tbsp red chilli powder
• 1 ½ tbsp raw mango powder (amchoor powder)
• 1 tbsp carom seeds (ajwain)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• ½ cup chopped coriander leaves
• 3 chopped green chillies    
• 1 ½ tbsp dried pomegranate seeds (anardana)

Preparation

1. In large pot, put potatoes, water and salt.
2. Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes on high heat.
3. After 10 minutes, lower the heat on low and cook for 1 ½ hour or until potatoes are tender. You can use a pressure cooker or instant pot too.
4. Take out potatoes from the water and keep aside to cool down.
5. Peel the skin and then cut the potatoes in small cubes.
6. In medium bowl, add potatoes cubes and all remaining ingredients and mix well.
7. Keep aside.

Ground Beef or Ground Chicken or Lamb Filling:

Ingredients

• 2 pounds cooked ground beef (ground beef recipe coming soon)
• 5 tbsp chopped onions
• 1 tbsp chopped green chilli
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
• 1 tbsp dried coriander seeds
• ½ tbsp chilli flakes

Preparation

1. In medium bowl, add cooked ground beef (make sure cooked ground beef has less oil) and all ingredients.
2. Mix well and check spice, if you need more spice you can add as needed.
3. Keep aside.

Note: To make the paste for the samosa’s seal, you need: ½ cup flour and water. Mix together until a thick paste is formed. Keep aside.

Make and Fry the Samosas

1. Make a cone shape with the pastry (homemade samosa sheets). Take two straight sides and overlap to form a cone shape. Note: For the homemade sheets, when you make a cone, have the cooked side of the sheet facing inside. So the uncooked side will get cooked when you fry them.
2. Add your fillings to the samosas, 1 tbsp. (Do not fill too much or too less).
3. Close the samosa edges with the samosa seal (shown above), pressing with your fingers. This seal act as a glue.
4. Place the samosa on a tray and repeat the steps to make more samosas. As you add the samosas to the tray, make sure when you are stacking them on top of each other that you use a plastic wrap in between, so the samosas do not stick together.

Frying the Samosas

1. Heat 1-quart vegetable oil in a deep-fry pan or karahi.
2. When the oil is hot, gently drop one piece of dough tester to check, if the oil is hot enough. After a few seconds, the piece of dough should rise to the top, which indicates that the oil is ready to fry.
3. Put the heat on medium.
4. Gently place the samosas into the oil.
5. Fry on medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overcrowd the pan, fry a few samosas at a time.

6. Remove the samosas with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel for a few minutes so the oils will get absorbed.

7. Serve with green chutney, tamarind chutney or ketchup.

Hope you liked the recipe!

Samosas can be eaten as is and with chutney, as well you can make Samosa Chaat. Samosa Chaat is made from breaking the samosas into pieces in a bowl. Afterwards, you add boiled chickpeas, boiled potatoes, onions, tomatoes, green chillies, yogurt and spices. There you have your Samosa Chaat!

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Below is my son’s vlog! He helped me make the samosas during Ramadan.