This Easy Baked Samosa Recipe can be made with both puff pastry and phyllo pastry. (I also show you how to make homemade dough, but I don't recommend it for baking, as it won't taste as good without all the oil and fat of deep-frying!)
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⭐ Why This Recipe is a Star
- Healthy: Baked samosas are obviously better for you than the deep-fried ones you get at an Indian restaurant! (So you can eat more.) You can also bake more samosa in 1 go than you can fry, so you save a lot of time. (And baking is much more passive than deep frying!)
- Delicious: This Indian snack food is full of flavor. It can be eaten with various samosa dipping sauces such as tamarind chutney, mint chutney or as an entree, with other Indian side dishes.
- 3 ways: I show you how to bake using puff pastry, phyllo pastry and homemade dough! (You can also use spring roll wrappers, which I've not shown below.) We're working with the classic potato filling but for more variety, here are 30+ samosa filling ideas.
What are Samosas?
If you've somehow made your way to this samosa recipe without knowing what they are, well, they're a deep-fried Indian snack. Usually triangular in shape, they're quite closely related to Singaporean and Malaysian curry puffs.
I use a potato filling for these vegetarian samosas, but you can easily switch the samosa filling for chicken, paneer cheese or whatever you fancy really.
🥘 Ingredients
You will need a few simple ingredients for this easy recipe:
- puff pastry sheets: You can also substitute with spring roll sheets, filo sheets, double-crust pie crust or the traditional homemade dough. My top recommendation is the puff pastry, followed by pie crust then phyllo and lasty homemade dough. You can get away with baking if you use puff pastry but homemade dough tastes a bit doughy and nowhere as good as fried.
- Egg: beaten, for egg wash. Alternatively , you can use a heavy cream wash.
- Potatoes: This is the heart of the savory filling. I use 500 grams, which is 1.1 pounds or 3-4 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes.
- Ghee: Unsalted Butter or Vegetable Oil work too. In a pinch, olive oil is good.
- Fresh Ginger: I mince or grate them but extra points for you if you pound them! (You can pound them with the green chilies, if using.)
- Mustard seeds: I only add mustard seeds as they don't need to be pound. If you're hard-working, you can make your samosas extra tasty by adding ½ teaspoon ground coriander seeds, ½ teaspoon fennel powder and ¼ teaspoon ground cumin seeds. (Or buy them in powder form.)
- Curry Leaves: These are optional as curry leaves can be hard to find in certain countries. If using, add an entire sprig- not individual leaves- for easy removal after sauteeing. (The leaves are quite hard and you won't enjoy biting through them.)
- Garam Masala: You can also use curry powder. For the quantities, check my potato curry puff recipe. (Curry puffs are very similar to samosa, but shaped differently.)
- Red Chili Powder: I recommend Kashimi red chili powder but if you don't have it, use cayenne pepper. You can also add minced green chilies if you like spice. I omitted them as I was going for a less spiced version.
- Turmeric Powder
- Lemon Juice: You can also use lemon juice or ¼ teaspoon of Amchur powder (mango powder) but I figure lemon juice is more accessible!
- Salt
Potato MUST be cold for puff pastry
Note: I use a vegetarian potato filling for my samosa but you can also use a ground meat keema filling. For more authentic flavor, add some hing (asafoetida.) Leftover samosa can be made into samosa chaat.
To make your own samosa dough: mix 1 cup of all purpose flour with ¼ teaspoon of salt and 2 Tablespoons of melted ghee. After that, add cold water, tablespoon by tablespoon, till you get a non-sticky dough. (You'll need about 3-4 Tablespoons of water.) Leave it to rest whilst you prepare the filling (at least half an hour) then knead and roll out. Alternatively, try the no-knead pastry I used for my curry puffs! (You can add Ajwain seeds or Carom Seeds for flavor.)
📖 Variations & Substitutes
- Feel free to add half a minced onion to the filling. I omitted it as I wanted to save time and the samosas still taste good without the onion.
- Carrot, pea and potato samosas: add the carrots and green peas after sauteeing the curry leaves and mustard seeds, before you add the potatoes, and stir for 2-3 minutes.
- For more green: chop up some cilantro leaves/ coriander leaves and stir it in after the filling has been cooked!
🔪 Step-by-Step Instructions
For the Potato Filling
1a. Place the washed potatoes in a pot of room temperature salted water.
1b. Bring to the boil over medium heat, then reduce to medium-low so that the water is simmering for about 20 minutes, or till tender when pierced by a fork. (Do not overcook as we don't want mushy potatoes. They should have a bit of bite!)
1c. Drain. When cool enough to touch, peel. Do not mash but use your hands to crumble into smaller pieces in a large bowl. This gives you potato pieces of different shapes sizes, with craggy edges, all the better for grabbing on to the flavorful curry powder.
2a. Over low heat, dry toast mustard seeds till fragrant.
2b. With the seeds still in the pan, add oil or butter and saute the ginger and curry leaves till fragrant.
Note: add the curry leaf as a sprig and not individual leaves as shown above, as they'll be more difficult to pick out.
2c. If using, add the green chilies now. If adding carrots and peas, add them and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Note: you can remove the curry leaf now or after finishing cooking the potatoes.
3a. Add the potatoes.
3b. If too dry, add some chicken stock or vegetable stock or water.
4a. Mix in the garam masala and turmeric potato. Saute till well-combined.
4b. Stir in the lemon juice and, if using, chopped up cilantro.
4c. Season to taste.
Now, allow filling to completely cool- if not it will melt the puff pastry!
For Puff Pastry
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F/ 177C/ 157 C fan.
- Only when the filling is completely cool, take the puff pastry (or substitute) out of thr fridge.
- Cut the puff pastry into 3 inch squares. (You should get 9 squares.)
- Place slightly less than 1 tablespoon of filling in the centre of each square then fold over to create a triangle.
- Pinch or use a fork to press to seal. (A little water of egg will help.)
- Place on a baking sheet, with space in between them.
- Brush with beaten eggs or heavy cream then bake for 25-35 minutes till golden brown
For pie crusts: only need baking for about 15 minutes.
For phyllo pastry: brush very generously with oil or melted butter/ ghee on both sides, or they won't look good. Bake at 400F/204C/ 184C fan for about 20 minutes or till golden brown. (At the 10 minute mark, turn the samosas over before continuing to bake.) You will need to layer up 3-4 sheets before folding them over the filling.
For homemade dough: This dough will need generous oiling before baking for 35-40 minutes in a 350F/ 177C/ 157C fan oven. (Flip them at the 15 minute mark.)
🥡 How to Store
The samosas taste best right after baking. If you really can't finish, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days and reheat in the microwave or oven.
The shaped samosas can be frozen for 4-6 weeks. (Freeze them on a tray for 2 hours, with space in between them, to prevent sticking. Once frozen, they can be jumbled up in a Ziplock bag.)
Tip: If you use my curry puff dough, the samosas can be cooked from frozen too!
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
Tip #1: If you don't have time to boil the potatoes beforehand, cut them up small and saute with the other ingredients. It won't taste as good, because they won't have the wrinkled skin to soak up all the flavoring!
Tip #2: For more flavor, saute the spice powders (i.e. coriander powder etc) in the hot oil with the mustard seeds for 20-30 seconds before adding the potatoes. However, you'll need to be quick as they burn easily.
💭 Recipe FAQs
Yes you can.
🥗 Suggested Accompanying Recipes
Enjoyed this easy Puff Pastry Samosas Recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below! If you REALLY liked these easy Indian snacks, please consider supporting it by buying me a bottle of soy sauce! 🙂 (No obligation though!) Thank you and have a great day!
Easy Baked Samosa Recipe
Ingredients
For the dough
- 2 puff pastry sheets Leave in the fridge till right before you want to bake. (The potato filling must be cool!) Substitute: phyllo pastry, pie crust, spring roll wrappers, or homemade dough (see recipe post for instructions)
For the filling
- 1.1 lb potatoes 500g or 3-4 medium ones. Use Yukon Gold
- ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1-2 Tablespoons ghee Or unsalted butter. Neutral vegetable oil is a 3rd choice.
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1 inch ginger mince, grate or pound.
- 1-2 green chilies Optional. Mince or pound with ginger.
- 2-3 teaspoons Garam Masala Amount added depends on freshness, taste and season accordingly.
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder Or to taste.
- ½-1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice Substitute: lime juice or ½ teaspoon of Amchur powder.
- ½-1 teaspoon salt Or to taste
- 1 egg beaten for wash. Substitute: heavy cream
Instructions
For the Filling
- Place the washed potatoes in a pot of room temperature salt water. Bring to the boil over medium heat, then reduce to medium-low so that the water is simmering for about 20 minutes, or till tender when pierced by a fork. (Do not overcook as we don't want mushy potatoes. They should have a bit of bite!) Drain.
- When cool enough to touch, peel. Do not mash but use your hands to crumble into smaller pieces. This gives you chunky potato pieces of varying sizes, with craggy edges, all the better for grabbing on to the flavorful curry powder.
- Over low heat, dry toast mustard seeds till fragrant.
- With the seeds still in the pan, add ghee, oil or butter and saute the ginger and curry leaves till fragrant. Note: If using, add the green chilies now.
- If adding carrots and peas, add them and saute for 2-3 minutes, then add the potatoes, garam masala, chili powder and turmeric powder.
- Saute till well-combined. If too dry, add some chicken stock or vegetable stock or water.
- Stir in the lemon juice and, if using, chopped up cilantro.
- Season to taste. Allow filling to completely cool- if not it will melt the puff pastry!
- To bake
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F/ 177C/ 157 C fan.
- Only when the filling is completely cool, take the puff pastry (or substitute) out of thr fridge. Cut the puff pastry into 3 inch squares. (You should get 9 squares per sheet.)
- Place slightly less than 1 tablespoon of filling in the centre of each square then fold over to create a triangle.
- Pinch or use a fork to press to seal. (A little water of egg will help.) Place on a baking sheet, with space in between them.
- Brush with beaten eggs or heavy cream then bake for 25-35 minutes till golden brown. (No need to turn.)
For other samosa dough
- For pie crusts: only need baking for about 15 minutes.For phyllo pastry: brush very generously with oil or melted butter/ ghee on both sides, or they won't look good. Bake at 400F/204C/ 184C fan for about 20 minutes or till golden brown. (At the 10 minute mark, turn the samosas over before continuing to bake.) You will need to layer up 3-4 sheets before folding them over the filling.For homemade dough: This dough will need generous oiling before baking for 35-40 minutes in a 350F/ 177C/ 157C fan oven. (Flip them at the 15 minute mark.)
Notes
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.
Nutrition
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