This Punjabi Samosa is as traditional as it gets, potato-pea stuffing and all. It’s crispy and flaky and spicy and, to cut a long ode short, just as a samosa was meant to be by the genius who invented this hand-held snack synonymous with Indian cuisine, restaurant appetizers, and rainy days.
I get so caught up so often in making healthier versions of traditional recipes, often with many twists and turns along the way, that I forget what it’s like to enjoy the original. On this blog, I’ve posted many stuffed savory pastry recipes, including baked samosas with a chickpea filling, and vegan keema samosas. But as delicious as they all are, this traditional Punjabi Samosa is in a class of its own.
I have in the past made whole-wheat wrappers to encase my samosas, but because I was going the traditional route this time, I made the wrappers as they are supposed to be made — with all-purpose flour — which creates that perfect flakiness. You do need a few special ingredients if you want an authentic flavor, like the ajwain or carom seeds for the wrapper and the pomegranate seed powder for the stuffing. Both are easily available online or at Indian grocery stores. Ajwain, especially, gives the wrappers that very special taste your tastebuds likely haven’t forgotten since the last time you ate a samosa. You can leave them out if you absolutely can’t find them, but it’s worth trying to.
One of the things to keep in mind, if you want that perfect flaky wrapper, is that the temperature of your frying oil has to be at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The samosas should bubble just lightly when dropped in the oil. This ensures that the wrappers fry up all crispy and golden brown and flaky, and not soggy and clogged with oil. Peanut oil would be traditional to fry these, but if you don’t have that, use any other unflavored variety that you like, like avocado oil. Do not use coconut oil because its strong flavor will change the taste of your samosas.
In Bombay, and over the rest of India, samosas are a popular street food, sometimes served encased in a pav ( a soft roll), or torn into pieces and smothered in a chickpea sauce, chutney, tomatoes and onions in a samosa chaat, among many improvisations. But even all by itself, the samosa remains the ultimate snack not just for Indians but for foodies worldwide. Serve this Punjabi Samosa with a traditional date-tamarind chutney, like this one. It’s a gastronomic experience to sink your teeth into one and hear it crackle back at you.
- For the wrappers:
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 tsp ajwain or carom seeds
- 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 3/4 tsp salt
- For the stuffing
- 5 medium yellow or red potatoes, boiled and peeled
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 2 tbsp coriander leaves, finely minced
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp pomegranate seed powder (anardana powder)
- 1 tsp chaat masala (both the chaat masala and the pomegranate seed add tartness. You can if you just can't get these, substitute with the juice of half a lemon)
- 1/2 green chili pepper, minced
- Salt to taste
- Oil for frying the samosas
- Make the dough for the wrapper:
- Mix the flour, carom seeds, oil and salt in a large bowl or in a stand mixer.
- Add water, half a cup at first and then a tablespoon at a time, and knead until you have a very stiff dough. You want to be very sure your dough is very stiff and not soft. Cover the dough and set aside while you make the filling
- Make the peas-potato filling:
- Crumble the potatoes with your fingers so you have a few lumps -- you don't want to mash these like you would if you were making mashed potatoes. You want some texture in here.
- Heat the oil.
- Add the cumin seeds and, as they start to brown, add the ginger.
- Saute the ginger for 30 seconds, the add the coriander leaves and the green chili pepper. Saute for a few seconds.
- Add the coriander powder, turmeric, pomegranate seed powder and chaat masala (or lemon juice if you're using that instead). Stir to mix.
- Add the potatoes and mix well.
- Add the peas and stir-fry until the peas are tender and the mixture is very dry, about two to three more minutes.
- Add salt to taste. Turn off the heat and let the filling cool slightly.
- Make the samosas:
- Divide the dough into 7 equal balls.
- Roll out each ball into an oval, about six inches long and four inches wide. Use some oil to coat the countertop if needed to keep the dough from sticking.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut across the long side of the oval to create two semicircular pieces.
- Coat the edges of each semicircle with water.
- Pick the two corners of the semicircle and bring them together, edges overlapping slightly, to form a cone. Press down on the seam to stick it. It's important to do this thoroughly because you don't want your samosas to open while you're frying them.
- Inside the cone, place a few teaspoons of the filling.
- Now seal the top of the samosa by pressing the top seam together and back.
- Repeat for remaining 13 samosas.
- In a wok or a frying pan, heat three inches of oil.
- When the oil reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit, drop the samosas, one at a time, taking care not to crowd the pan or you'll end up bringing the oil temperature down very fast. I have an eight-inch wok and I fry three samosas at a time.
- Fry the samosas, turning over occasionally, until they are golden-brown.
- Drain on paper towels before serving with a date-tamarind chutney.
The calories may be higher than stated in the nutrition label because I cannot accurately calculate the calorie count after deep frying.
Thank you so much for this gem. They look so good, I could almost taste them.
I love the traditional indian dishes, though fusion and improvisation dishes are good too.
It would be great if you could post other traditional Indian dishes, snacks, dals, rice dishes and main dishes. I would love to learn to make rasam or sambar from scratch.
I was at the home of an Indian friend recently… She made moong dal among several other dishes such as mirch, a spicy potato dish, and bindil. She used spices that were dried and garam masala prepared by her mother in law…. She lets me watch when she cooks, but by the time I get home and try to make the dishes, they just don’t taste the same…. still edible, but not the same.
Traditional Indian dishes are so worth passing on….
Hi Ruth, thank you! I do post traditional Indian recipes fairly often, and there are many rasam and sambar recipes made from scratch on the blog. You can search in the sidebar. I also have recipes for rasam powder and sambar powder on my DIY spice mixes page. Cheers.
Vaishali, Thanks for the references…. these recipes should keep me busy. Ruth
Hi Vaishali,
Can I use Amchur instead of Anardhana powder?Thank you.
Hi Geetha, yes, amchur would be fine.
Vaishali!! Even though I try to eat healthy most of the times, samosas are my weakness. Though I do eat the fried version outside, I don’t deep fry at home. Can these be baked instead? I also don’t use maida, so how do you think a baked wheat flour version would turn out? Thanks 🙂
Ok so I made a baked version with wheat flour. It turned out pretty well, though obviously not like fried version. But it was quite nice. While I did use some oil as the moyen in the dough, still it was a lot less oily than the fried version 🙂
Hi Namrata, so glad you tried these. The whole wheat flour/baked version is certainly healthier, although you probably didn’t get the flakiness. One thing to keep in mind is that these samosas hardly absorb any oil when deep fried, so long as you ensure you are at the right temperature. It’s a great way to have the perfect samosa and eat it too. 🙂
OMG Vaishali !
You are WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL !!!! I have been looking for the Pea and Potato recipe for 25 years ! I had the exact some thing in Florida when I was working for the Patels as a manager. I looked and looked and looked and talked to friends from India and NEVER was able to get what I was looking for ! NOW I HAVE IT ! YOU ARE WONDERFUL, I love you for all you do for animals, health and your blog ! I am a Rescue Momma of 8, 4 footed Babies and would not trade my life or them for anything, they make my soul complete and my bank account empty ! I am in my 60’s, still working, 7 days a week, with a husband on disability and LOVE MY LIFE ! Healthy eating is sooooo importante and you have the best recipes ! Helps I love to cook once in a while…. Peace, Love and Health to all you and yours !
Wow Gail !! That’s so, so inspiring <3
Hi Gail, you are so kind– thank you!! 🙂 You are indeed amazing. Mom to eight rescues — wow! I love that the blog gives me a chance to meet inspiring people like you.
These look so good. I think it’s okay to have some fried stuff as an occasional treat. But—I think I can’t handle fried stuff any more because I have GERD. Every time I go to a South Indian restaurant with chaat type stuff, I always pay for it later. Do you think it’s because it’s fried? I can cook Indian at home with the same spices and not have a problem—but I don’t fry it, so I think it’s the only difference. Sunday’s culprit was chole bhature,
I think as much as I love all Indian food, some restaurant food is really just an Indian version of fast food and every bit as fried/greasy. I think that’s where the Indian paradox theory came in—that people think Indian food is healthy because there’s a lot of vegetarians, but some of this stuff isn’t—hence the epidemic in India of cardiac disease and diabetes. So your site is so helpful in enabling me to have Indian food—in a healthy way, at home.
Any thoughts? Do you eat out at Indian restaurants much?
I may see about deconstructing the samosa—serving it on something like a pappadum, which we broil in the toaster oven rather than fry.
Hi Ellen, fried food can definitely cause reflux. You can try baking the samosas, using the recipe for Baked chickpea samosas, and you can also try making the cover part whole wheat –sub half the all purpose flour. It might also be fun to make this filling and stuff it into a paratha, kinda like a samosa paratha. 🙂 All the fun without the frying.
I tend not to eat out much any more, but when we do, we do often seek out Indian restaurants. I agree Indian restaurant food is really unhealthy, at least most of the time. I can’t think of any restaurant food that would be low fat, because even the dals and vegetable sabzis are floating in oil, usually. Fat is an easy way to make food flavorful, I guess, although in most Indian homes you won’t find people using so much oil, at least in this day and age. Ghee, especially, only gets used on special occasions. There are a large number of meat eaters in India too — more than 60 percent of the population — and the liberal consumption of milk by vegetarians is also a big contributor to heart disease and diabetes.
HI Vaishali,
I Have been looking for the perfect samosa recipe and this is it! I have tried others but this is the true authentic flavor I remember having growing up in the West-Indian/Indian community in Queens, NY. Thanks for sharing. My husband and I ate the entire batch in one day!
Hi Sandy, that’s so wonderful to hear. So happy you enjoyed them. They don’t last very long around here either! 😉
Vaishali, these are by far the best samosas ever. I made these last night and they were gone in minutes– we couldn’t keep our hands off them. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Jane, thanks for letting me know! So happy you loved them.
Is there a specific oil you would recommend for frying these?
Yes, peanut oil! It is traditionally used in Indian cooking and it is stable at high temperatures.
My wrapping will never be as beautiful as yours but the filling was absolutely, perfectly, wonderfully heavenly! I’ll make these again and again — and maybe some day they will look somewhat like samosas instead of a first grade art project.
Awesome. Your wrappers will get better with practice. Thanks for the feedback.
Heads up! The recipe says nut-free but I contains peanut oil!
Thanks for the heads up. You can use any oil with a high smoking point instead of peanut to make these nut free.
Can I assemble these one day and fry the next?
Is it just 2 cups of flour,salt and 1 tbsp of oil?