Easy Baked Samosas Recipe

Samosas, small filled pastries originating from South Asia, are a popular street food in countries like India and Pakistan, but they're well known and appreciated in many parts of the world. Though traditionally deep-fried, baked samosas save the day when you want to enjoy these delicious savory treats with a little less fuss. The dough is lighter and crispier when baked, and it provides an excellent contrast to the moist and strongly flavored filling inside — without any of the extra fat or mess of frying in oil.

Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created an easy baked samosa recipe that delivers all the flavors and textures of standard baked samosas, but to make the process simpler, she opted to use packaged egg roll wrappers. In a few easy steps, you can create the signature three-dimensional triangular shape of samosas. You could also make these with other types of ready-made dough, like wonton wrappers for mini samosas, spring roll wrappers (since they are round, you can use the traditional folding technique), premade samosa dough, or even phyllo dough or puff pastry.

Samosas can have different fillings, but this recipe features a classic filling of mashed potatoes, peas, and spices. The filling, spiced with earthy cumin seeds, zesty fresh ginger, citrusy coriander, sweet-spicy garam masala, and chile powder for a bit of heat, is so delicious on its own, you'll have to try hard not to eat it all before stuffing the samosas. If you're avoiding deep-fried foods or just want to try something new, you can't go wrong with this scrumptious baked samosa recipe.

For this recipe, you will first need russet potatoes. You can substitute other kinds of starchy potatoes if needed, but avoid waxy potatoes, which don't mash as well. The spices the recipe calls for are cumin seeds, ground coriander, garam masala, red chile powder, and salt. You can substitute paprika for the chile powder if you don't like spicy food. You'll also need ginger, oil, frozen peas, cilantro, and egg roll wrappers.

Place the unpeeled potatoes in a medium pot covered by 1 inch of water.

Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes for 15-20 minutes until fork-tender.

Drain the potatoes and allow them to cool enough to be handled.

Peel the potatoes with the help of a paring knife.

Use a potato masher, a fork, or the back of a spoon to mash the potatoes. Set the potatoes aside.

Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium.

When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and cook until they make a crackling sound and release their aroma.

Add the ginger and saute for 1 minute.

Add the potatoes, coriander, garam masala, and red chile powder and saute for 2-3 minutes.

Add the peas and salt and saute for 1 minute. Taste and adjust for seasonings and remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in the cilantro.

Transfer the potato filling to a dish and set it aside to cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Cut the 9 egg roll wrappers in half to form 18 rectangular pieces.

Position one rectangular piece on your work surface with the long sides at the top and bottom. Using your finger or a brush, moisten the top and right-hand edges with water.

Pick up the lower right corner and fold it up to touch the top edge, forming a triangular layer. Press the top edge to seal.

Pick up the top right-hand corner of the piece and fold the triangle over to the left, forming a second triangular layer. Press the top edge to seal.

Carefully open the pouch and fill with about 2 tablespoons of potato filling.

Moisten the 2 edges of the triangular pouch flap and fold the flap to close the samosa, keeping it in a pyramid shape so it can stand up, and press the edges to seal. Invert the samosa and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Repeat the process to fill the remaining egg roll wrappers.

Brush both sides of the samosas with oil.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden, flipping halfway.

Serve hot with a sauce of your choice if desired.

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Samosas are delicious on their own, but if you serve them with a sauce, you enhance the experience of eating them by providing complementary flavors and textures. Three sauces commonly served with samosas in restaurants are often referred to as green sauce, brown sauce, and red sauce. The green sauce is cilantro chutney, also known as coriander chutney. It usually includes cilantro, ginger, lemon juice, and green chilies. The brown sauce is tamarind chutney, and this sauce, which is actually cooked, features tamarind paste and spices such as ginger and garam masala. It has a more complex flavor because jaggery makes it sweet while cayenne pepper adds heat. The red sauce is a garlic chutney with red chili peppers. Although it contains ingredients like cumin and lemon, the principal characteristic is heat, so be forewarned.

You don't have to stop at the three types of chutney mentioned above. Many of these 12 types of chutney could complement your samosas, depending on your tastes. Mint, sweet apple, green tomato, coconut, and mango chutneys are all choices that can be paired with samosas.

However, you don't have to serve samosas with chutney at all. Some people enjoy dipping them in ketchup, while sriracha sauce is a good option for spice lovers. French onion dip, mint yogurt dip, cranberry sauce, apple butter, and queso can all be enjoyed with samosas. A little goes a long way: Since the filling has a strong flavor, apply enough sauce to add flavor without overpowering the filling.

Although this recipe is for an easier version of samosas, the process still requires some time to prepare. If it's more convenient to make them ahead, you can do so — either by getting started on a few of the steps in advance or making and storing the full samosa. Simply boiling, cooling, and peeling the potatoes prior to assembly would save you a lot of time. You can also make the whole filling ahead and refrigerate it until you're ready to bake the samosas. Finally, you can make the whole samosas, but wait to bake them. You can freeze the unbaked samosas until you're ready to make them, and they will still be delicious.

Freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Once they're frozen, transfer them to a freezer bag or a freezer-safe container. This way, they won't stick together when they freeze. When you're ready to make them, make sure you don't thaw them first: Put them in the oven while they're still frozen. You'll need to increase the cooking time by a couple of minutes to compensate for the colder initial temperature.

If you actually have any of these irresistible samosas leftover, consider making samosa chaat. This is a street food snack made by breaking up leftover samosas into bite-sized pieces and topping them with flavorful ingredients like yogurt, chickpeas, chutney, onions, and sev (a type of crispy noodle).

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