Recipe- Delicious Street Style Vegetable Samosa

When I think of Indian snack food, I instantly picture the three-pointed beauty of hot and crispy samosas, a.k.a. The Best Vegetable Samosas. Nothing says fast-casual Indian cooking more than a deep fried, carb-on-carb, potato-stuffed pastry. The palm-sized dumplings are iconic of street stalls and restaurant menus alike. Indian festival banquets wouldn’t be complete without them, either.

Ingredients

For the Filling

750 g potatoes
100 g peas I use frozen
1 tbsp any flavourless oil
2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 large onion finely diced
3 hot green chillies finely chopped
2 1/2 cm piece fresh ginger peeled and grated
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp amchur dried mango powder
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp fresh coriander finely chopped

For The Pastry

500 g plain flour
2 tsp ajwain
1 1/2 tsp salt
100 ml any flavourless oil
185 ml warm water

1.5 L flavourless oil such as vegetable, sunflower or rapeseed oil

Method

For The Filling

- Boil the potatoes in plenty of water until tender. Drain and allow to cool completely. Once cool, peel the potatoes and roughly mash using a potato masher or the back of a fork. Set aside.

- Heat the oil in a large, non-stick pan. Add the cumin seeds and allow to sizzle briefly. Add the ginger, chillies and onions. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, until translucent but not browned.

- Add the mashed potatoes, peas, turmeric, amchur, ground coriander seeds and salt. Give the mixture a good stir to combine all the ingredients thoroughly.

- Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring all the time and then remove from the heat. Spread the mixture onto a plate and add mix in the coriander leaves. Allow to cool completely.

For The Pastry

- Place the flour in a large bowl and mix in the ajwain and salt. Make a well in the centre of the flour.

- Add the oil. Using your fingertips, begin to rub the flour and the oil together to create a fine, breadcrumb-like texture, as if you were making shortcrust pastry.

- Add the water and combine using your hands to create a rough, shaggy-looking dough.

- Knead for 10 minutes, until smooth. Cover with a damp tea towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

- Once rested, divide the dough into 9 tennis ball-sized rounds. Smooth into rounds between your palms and cover again with a damp tea towel to stop the pastry from drying out.

- Each round will make 2 samosas, for a total of 18 samosas. You can choose to make them larger or smaller by making fewer or more dough balls.