Have you ever tasted Samosas? Perhaps you have tried Vegetarian Samosas or Meat Samosas during one of your travels. A typical dish from different parts of the World, it originates in India but soon became popular across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and in some parts of China.
A dish made with phyllo dough, which is fried after being stuffed with ingredients that vary from nation to continent, with the most diverse spices according to the local cuisine of the country of origin.
If you know a little about my recipe blog or if you have had the chance to read other of my stories, you probably know about my travels to Kenya with my mother Roberta. Whole months spent in Malindi living wonderful experiences that I still cherish today as precious jewels in the safe of my heart.
A magical World in which we immersed ourselves for a couple of months a year, a place to recharge our energy and detach from the reality we left several hours of flight behind. A country in the Heart of Africa that welcomed us with a smile and open arms, a unique seaside town for us.
So, after 9 years, I decided to prepare Samosas, in this case vegetarian, with baked phyllo dough. I recorded the video recipe for you to help with the preparation of the samosas, and I hope it will be helpful. Basically, it’s a simple recipe, you shouldn’t have problems, but if you encounter any, write to me!
I remind you that I’m waiting for you every morning on the group and the Facebook fan page of Le Ricette di Bea with the Recipe of the Day and many other curiosities live from my kitchen! In the lower part of this recipe, you will also find links to follow me and my blog through my social profiles.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop, Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 48.40 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 8.62 (g) of which sugars 0.78 (g)
- Proteins 1.34 (g)
- Fat 0.95 (g) of which saturated 0.21 (g)of which unsaturated 0.50 (g)
- Fibers 0.94 (g)
- Sodium 82.35 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 28 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for about 18 Baked Vegetarian Samosas
- 1 package phyllo dough
- 3.5 oz potatoes (boiled)
- 3.5 oz peas (boiled)
- 3.5 oz carrots (blanched)
- Half white onion
- Half celery
- to taste cumin
- to taste turmeric powder
- to taste coriander
- to taste curry
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- 1 coffee cup water (to brush the samosas)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (to brush the samosas)
Tools to prepare Vegetarian Samosas
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Pot
- 1 Baking sheet
- 1 Parchment paper
- 1 Brush
- 1 Small bowl
- 2 Spoons
- 1 Plate
- 1 Peeler
Steps for the Vegetarian Samosa Recipe
Let’s start by bringing a pot with plenty of lightly salted water to the stovetop. Once it reaches boiling, we’ll blanch, if desired together, the potatoes with the skin, the carrots, and the peas. You don’t need to blanch the onion and celery. Then pass everything under boiling water or directly in ice to stop the cooking and the heat emanated by the boil.
Then place everything on a wooden cutting board, remove the potato skin and the skin of the carrots using a peeler, then cut everything into not too large cubes. Of course, except for the peas, which will be just fine as they are. Then arrange everything on a nice large plate to season the vegetables with the spices.
In my case, I used spices that I like and am used to the fragrances and smells of. As my friend Gaia says, it is a spiced recipe but it feels Western because I never overdo it with spices for fear of overdoing it.
I added cumin, curry, ginger, turmeric, pepper, and salt just not to overdo flavors. Then sprinkle the vegetables with these spices and mix with two spoons. So the filling for our homemade samosas will be ready. Preheat the oven in static mode at 356-374°F.
It’s time to make the samosas, and since we’re using ready-made phyllo dough and since we’re not samosa experts, we certainly won’t know how to make triangles from which to make cones to fill.
So I recommend doing as I did, lay the phyllo dough on a cutting board, fold it in half to create a long and not too wide rectangle. At the bottom, towards you, place a generous spoonful of vegetable filling, then fold to create triangles until you reach the end of the phyllo dough.
In the video recipe this step is very well shown because it can be difficult to understand in words. Once the phyllo dough with the filling is folded, all we have to do is brush the outside of the samosas with oil, in my case extra virgin olive oil, but if you have seed oil or coconut oil or another type of oil, it will be fine, diluting with a bit of water.
We then place the samosas on the baking sheet where we have placed a sheet of parchment paper. Bake the vegetarian samosas for about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the oven, you will see that the surface will start to become golden and crispy.
We will then be ready to serve the baked vegetarian samosas with spices to our family or guests. An appetizer, a starter, a flavorful Indian or African street food, colorful and super crunchy, perfect for any occasion, super easy to prepare, with a unique and unmistakable aroma.
All that remains is to wish you a good appetite and remind you that I’m waiting for you every morning with a new recipe always here on my cooking blog Le Ricette di Bea!
Tips and variations:
We can store the baked Indian samosas in plastic containers or small bags for a couple of days, but keep in mind that they will never be as crispy as freshly baked, so I advise you not to make too many if you’re not sure you’ll finish them the same day.
It is better to keep the filling aside and store the phyllo dough in the refrigerator so you can prepare them at the moment since it only takes a few minutes to bake them in the oven. If you want, you can even fry the phyllo dough to require less baking time.
