These crispy, crunchy and golden Samosa Pastry Squares are a fun and easy way to enjoy the popular Indian potato-stuffed snack without all the mess and hassle of deep-frying. They make a fun and kinda healthy snack for little mouths, but no adult will be able to keep their hands off! Vegan, nut-free and soy-free recipe.
There is nothing you won't love about these Samosa Pastry Squares. They are crunchy, flaky, golden, with a crust that melts in your mouth and a spicy, savory filling that'll make you want more.
I began making these mainly as an occasional lunchbox or afterschool snack for Jay, and they are so popular around here now, I have learned a few tricks to assemble them in no time at all.
Jay loves samosas, and I'll never forget the day we picked him up from the orphanage in Bombay. We were flying straight to Delhi to get Jay's immigration details sorted out at the U.S. embassy, and I remember that day so well for all the excitement and trepidation it brought. Suddenly, we'd gone from two to three, and among us was a little boy, still someone unknown to us, who was entrusting us with his life.
When they served samosas on the plane, Jay was excited, like most kids would be about this delicious snack.
Then, he carefully picked out all of the potato filling and just ate the crunchy covers.
I knew I had my work cut out for me. 🙂 Happily, over our five-year journey together, Jay has come to not just love the samosas I make for him, he loves the filling even more. Now, he will eat it straight out of the skillet when he thinks I'm not watching. How the times have changed! 😉
So about these Samosa Pastry Squares. This is basically a tasty potato filling sandwiched inside layers of flaky puff pastry. It's a samosa that's not deep-fried but baked, although I'll warn here that it's not necessarily healthier because puff pastry does have a good amount of fat. But all in all, this is not a super calorie-heavy snack and the stuffing makes it moderately nutritious.
Not at all. In fact, if you enjoy eating samosas, I daresay this is a far easier way to enjoy them. You get a crunchy, flaky wrap just as you would with a fried samosa for half the work. You can even get your kids involved in making them.
The answer is a resounding "yes!" Samosa stuffings are meant to be tweaked and experimented with, and although the stuffing I have for you today is a very classic samosa stuffing, you can certainly let your imagination run wild here. I sometimes stuff a savory chickpea mixture into these, and sometimes a savory, "meaty" one.
Fifteen minutes is all it takes in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. And since prep takes only about 30 minutes, you'll have samosa pastry squares to eat in under an hour.
Shaping regular samosas can be a little tricky if you want to get the shape to be just so, but there are no rules to shaping these samosa pastry squares. I sometimes shape them into triangles, sometimes into rectangles, and sometimes squares. You can even make a samosa pie by laying one sheet on the bottom of a baking pan (prick all over with a fork, then spread the samosa filling in the middle, and lay the other sheet over the top. Cut a few holes in the top pastry sheet and bake. Voila!
Ingredients for Samosa Pastry Squares:
- Puff pastry sheets
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Cilantro
- Cumin seeds
- Turmeric
- Lemon juice
- Salt
Looking for more easy vegan snack recipes?
- Vegetable Puffs with Homemade Puff Pastry
- Vegan Sausage Rolls
- Chocolate Mousse and Oreo Stuffed Puff Pastry Shells
- Vegan Irish Hand Pies
- Chickpea and Kale Stuffed Empanadas
- Chickpea Mushroom Turnovers
- Classic Indian Punjabi Samosa
- Baked Samosa with a Chickpea Filling
- Bread Pakora
SAMOSA PASTRY SQUARES
Vegan | Soy-free | Nut-free
Crispy Samosa Pastry Squares with Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- 2 puff pastry sheets
- 1.5 pounds potatoes (Boiled or zapped in the microwave until tender. You can peel them or leave the peels on, especially if you're using organic potatoes. Either red or yellow potatoes are fine)
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 small onion (finely diced)
- 2 green chili peppers (like jalapeno or serrano, deseeded, then minced. Alternatively, use ½ tsp of red pepper flakes. Adjust up or down to your taste)
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp garlic paste
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp cilantro (chopped)
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- To make the filling, place each boiled potato on a chopping board and use a heavy fork to mash the potato (the way you would if you were making smashed potatoes), then cut into small bits. You want your potato filling to be a crumbly, semi-mashed mix for an authentic filling, not cut in a neat dice.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the cumin seeds and as they darken and become fragrant, add the onions, ginger, garlic and green cilantro, chili peppers or red pepper flakes. Stir to mix and saute until the onions turn translucent and start to change color.
- Add the turmeric, stir it in, then add the crumbly potatoes and salt and lemon juice. Mix well and saute for a couple of minutes, then turn off the heat. Your potato mixture should be very dry.
- To make the pastry squares, place one puff pastry sheet on the countertop. Use the folds in the puff pastry as a guide to cut into three strips. Cut each strip further into three equal squares. You should have eighteen squares in all -- nine from each sheet.
- Use water to moisten one of the pastry squares along the edges. Place a couple of tablespoons of filling in the middle. The more crumbly your filling is, the more you'll be able to accommodate on the square. Take another pastry square and place it over the filling and press the edges of the top and bottom squares together with your fingers to seal them, making a pocket. Use the tines of a fork to press down on the edges -- this also creates a decorative pattern. Use a sharp knife to cut a cross on the top of the square.
- Continue doing this for the remaining pastry and filling. Then place the squares on a baking sheet, at least an inch apart. Bake in the preheated oven 15 minutes until gold and crispy. You can brush on some vegetable oil on the tops of the squares before baking for a deeper gold color to your puff pastry squares.
- Serve hot or warm or at room temperature. To reheat, heat the oven to 350 degrees and pop in for 2-3 minutes or until hot. These will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.
Nutrition
This was excellent! Quick and easy, very tasty. I wasn't able to fit all my filling with 1.5 lbs of potatoes into 9 squares. But that just means more pastry squares for me!
So happy you tried it, Krithika. I will confess I eat a lot of the filling as I make these, so the extra works great for me. 🙂
I see cilantro in the list of ingredients, but don't see it in the instructions section. ???
In step 3 -- thanks!
PLEASE tell me where you found the puff pastry sheets. EVERYTHING I find is either full of eggs and milk, or it's "gluten" free. NOTHING is vegan. Which pastry sheets did you use? Wish there were a link for where to buy them.
Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets, you can find them at most supermarkets in the U.S. You can also just make your own: https://holycowvegan.net/vegetable-puffs-with-homemade-puff/
Thank you for sharing
These are so yummy
So happy you liked them!
Made these last night I had one puff pastry sheet remaining so halved the recipe and omitted the cilantro because I didn't have any. They were fabulous. My son took them to school today and he was one happy kid! Thank you.
So happy you liked them! Thanks for letting me know.