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Samosas with mint raita

45 min
Samosas with mint raita

Samosas are a dish that dates back millennia. Enjoyed throughout Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa, these fried or baked pastry packets may be stuffed with a range of different fillings. Our samosa recipe is based on a traditional Indian aloo samosa and is, as such, made with a filling of potatoes, peas, and onions flavoured with tikka masala. These pea and potato samosas are best enjoyed hot and served with an ice-cold mint raita made from creamy Greek-inspired yoghurt and fresh mint leaves.

Ingredients

Mint raita:

Greek inspired yoghurt
200 ml
Mild, chunky mangos chutney
2 tbsp
Crushed, small garlic clove
1
Finely chopped, fresh mint leaves
2 tbsp
Coarse salt
¼ tsp

Samosas:

Rapeseed oil
1 tbsp
Coarsely chopped yellow onion
1
Tikka masala spice mix
3 tbsp
Boiled potatoes, roughly mashed
4
Frozen peas
200 ml
Filo pastry (approx. 30 x 40 cm)
8 sheets
Rapeseed oil
1 tbsp

Instructions

Mint raita:

  • Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
  • Transfer the covered dipping sauce to the refrigerator.

Samosas:

  • Preheat oven to 225°C (regular oven).
  • Let the oil heat up in a pan at high heat without it letting it brown.
  • Sauté the onions in the oil and add spice mix, potatoes, and peas. Cool the filling.
  • Gently place 2 sheets of filo pastry flat on a dry countertop. If there are additional sheets in the package, keep them moist with a damp tea towel until you are ready to use them.
  • Brush both sheets with rapeseed oil and place one on top of the other.
  • Cut the filo pastry into 4 pieces of about 10 x 30 cm. Transfer 1½ tbsp of the filling to one corner.
  • Fold the corner over the filling so you get a triangle. Continue folding the triangle until you are out of filo pastry. Repeat this process with the remaining 6 filo pastry sheets so you end up with 16 samosas all in all.
  • Place the small packets on a lined baking sheet and brush them with rapeseed oil.
  • Bake them in the middle of the oven for about 7 minutes.
Enjoy!

Tips

To ensure that your samosa filling has a soft and tender mouthfeel and that you can easily fold the samosas, you need to make sure that the boiled potatoes are properly mashed – roughly. The easiest way to do so is to use a fork. When the potatoes are cold enough to handle, peel them if you have not done so before boiling them, then place them in a deep dish or mixing bowl. Now use the fork to turn them into a coarse mash by pressing down with its tines. Since it is nice to have a bit of texture in a samosa filling, make sure not to mash the potatoes too much.

Questions about samosas with mint raita

A crispy pea and potato samosa with a refreshing mint raita is a perfect savoury treat or side dish, and with our easy samosa recipe, making them is simple as well. Read below to learn more about samosas, how to make them as well as a perfect dipping sauce to accompany them.

What is a samosa?

A samosa is a baked or fried pastry popular around the globe. Prepared with a savoury filling, the crispy and flaky pastry packet is triangular, cone-shaped, or fashioned like a half-moon. The shape, as well as the filling, vary across different regions, and samosas can be filled only with vegetables or also contain meat. A samosa is typically enjoyed as a snack or side dish and served with a dipping sauce like mint raita or chutney.

How to make a samosa?

Many people have perhaps tried a crunchy samosa at a street food market or from their local Middle Eastern mini market, but not that many try their hand at making the dish at home. However, it is simple. Make the filling of onion, spice mix, roughly mashed boiled potatoes, and peas. Put some filling on a cut-out piece of filo dough and fold in a triangle sheet until you run out of dough. Bake in the oven and serve the hot potato samosas with ice-cold mint raita as an entrée, side dish, or snack.

How to make samosa dough?

A traditional recipe for samosa dough instructs you to combine flour, oil/ghee (a type of clarified butter used in many Southeast Asian cuisines), salt, and water. Because this dough needs to rest, preferably for up to an hour, before it can be rolled out and stuffed with samosa filling, an easy alternative is a samosa with filo pastry. This type of samosa is similarly flaky, crunchy, and crispy. While you can, of course, make your own filo pastry, you can just as easily use a store-bought one for ease. The result will be just as tasty.

How to reheat samosas?

Reheat cold or frozen samosas in the oven. Preheat your oven to 200°C (regular oven) and place them evenly on a wire rack so they are not touching. A cold samosa should be heated for 5-10 minutes, while a frozen samosa will need 15-20 minutes in the oven. The exact time depends on the size of your homemade samosas. Test how hot they are by sticking a fork into the middle of a samosa placed towards the centre of the oven and feel how warm the tines are. Reheating in a microwave is not recommendable, as the filo pastry loses its crispiness and may become either soggy or dried out.

Can you freeze samosas?

You can store both baked and unbaked samosas in the freezer. Place the samosas in a single layer on a lined baking sheet and place it into the freezer. When the samosas have frozen solid, place them in an airtight container and freezer bag. Since they have been frozen solid this way, they should not stick together. In the freezer, homemade samosas will keep for up to 2 months. They may be baked or reheated straight from the oven.

How to make mint raita?

Making homemade raita with mint is incredibly easy. Simply combine yoghurt, mango chutney, chopped mint leaves, a crushed garlic clove, and salt. Using Greek-inspired yoghurt will give the cold sauce a deliciously creamy texture. The reason our recipe for mint raita calls for fresh mint is that it gives your dipping sauce a cooling quality that pairs well with the spiciness of the samosas and which simply cannot be achieved using dried herbs.

Crunchy vegetable samosas

These peas and potato samosas have a tender, flavourful filling wrapped in a crispy, crunchy, and golden filo pastry. Dipped in a refreshing mint raita, the combination of flavours and textures is a match made in heaven. While some may say that samosas must be deep-fried, an oven-baked samosa is equally golden, flaky, and delicious. Brushing the filo pastry triangles with oil before baking ensures this characteristic crispiness, and baking eases the process of cooking samosas considerably. As such, making these tikka masala-flavoured savoury pastry snacks is easy.

If you are on the lookout for more flavourful vegetable dishes, check out our recipes for palak paneer, a classic Indian dish with cheese and spinach sauce, and vegetarian curry, a warming dish made with red curry, fresh ginger, and all your favourite vegetables.

Dip in a fresh mint raita

A crunchy potato and pea samosa tastes wonderful dipped in a cold and refreshing mint raita with yoghurt. This creamy dipping sauce is enjoyed as a side dish to many different dishes in Indian cuisine and complements the flaky filo pastry of these potato samosas wonderfully. The fresh mint not only has a sweet and bright herbal flavour that balances the pungent raw garlic, but it also has a cooling effect that will linger on your tongue. This makes it perfect for use with flavour-packed dishes like samosas that may be a bit spicy for some.

Luckily, making homemade mint raita is both simple and quick. In our easy mint raita recipe, you can either use a store-bought chutney or make your own using our recipe for mango chutney. This makes it possible for you to adjust the spice level exactly according to your taste.

How to fold a samosa

The trickiest thing about cooking samosas can be folding them. But the samosa folding process does not have to be daunting. After you have prepared your filling, remember to allow it to cool, so you do not burn your fingers when wrapping it. Then prepare the sheets of filo dough and place a small amount of filling (about 1½ tablespoon) in the corner of one of the cut rectangular pieces. Fold this corner down so you get a triangle shape with filling in it. Now keep folding this filling-stuffed triangle down the length of the filo pastry. This is how you can easily fold your samosas.

Experiment with your samosa filling

A quick search into samosa ingredients will tell you that there is a wealth of different types of samosas with a plethora of different fillings. As such, we encourage you to experiment to find your favourite samosa filling.

Delicious vegetable samosa filling ideas other than the classic combination of potato, pea, and onion include using carrots, cauliflower, spinach and cheese, lentils, and root vegetables. Try mixing different vegetables and flavour your vegetarian filling with spices like Indian garam masala, Chinese five spice mix, curry powders, or fresh spices like zingy ginger or lemony coriander seeds.

Samosas do not necessarily have to be filled with vegetables only. You can also prepare them with a filling made from minced meat like lamb or beef combined with the vegetables of your choice. If you enjoy the taste of poultry, seek inspiration in our tandoori chicken recipe to learn how to make a beautiful red chicken marinated with tandoori spice, ginger, and tomato purée. Chopped into smaller pieces, this Indian tandoori chicken will taste wonderful as a samosa filling.

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