Samosa is the most popular street food in India. But do you know the history of samosa?
This popular snack did not belong to India and it was not invented in India. It traveled to India from Central Asia centuries ago. Various recipes of this dish could be found in the 10th-13th-century Arab cookery books under different names such as sanbusak, sanbusaq, and sanbusaj, all of which derive from the Persian word sanbosag. The traders from Central Asian brought this recipe to India during 13th or 14th century. Samosa was filled with a meat mince and onions. It was known as Samushak or sambushak.
Then the recipe was modified with filling made from potato and peas and vegetarians started enjoying it. Later, it became known as “samosa”. Samosa is known by different names in India. For example, in Bengal and eastern parts of India it is known as Shingara and can be sweet and savory. In Hyderabad, it is known as “Lukmi” and is filled with minced meat. In Goa, it is known as chamucas and has different style of pastry and filling.
Today Samosa is a popular snack worldwide. Samosa is a triangular pastry made with whole wheat or all purpose flour filled with a spiced filling made from potato, pea, and onions. It is deep fried until golden and crispy. It is served with coriander mint chutney, tamarind date chutney or ketchup.
It is irresistible and is a perfect snack for celebration and parties. It is a perfect snack with a cup of hot tea for guests. How can we forget the combination of the first rain and samosa! It is a perfect dish to have on a rainy day.
Nowadays, my son has started enjoying samosa. It is always first on his demand list. The other day he had cough and cold and wanted to eat something tasty and requested samosa. I wanted to fulfill his demand but with the bad throat, I did not want him to eat the deep fried samosa, so I decided to make a baked version of samosa for him.
Baking takes a little longer but believe me it is worth every effort. The baked samosa was perfect in taste and had a very flaky and crispy outer covering. Of course, the texture of the samosa would not match the deep fried samosa but baked samosa is far better when you count the calories saved. They are light on heart and stomach.
For samosa pastry, I have used whole wheat flour with semolina and cornflour. Semolina helps to get thick outer covering and cornflour would help in making samosa covering light and flaky. I have made chapati from the kneaded dough and have half cooked them in a pan. Baking the samosa made with half cooked chapati will make them crispier. I had two chapatis left and hence I brushed them with oil, sprinkled chatpata khakhra masala, cut them into wedges like a pizza and baked them till golden and crisp. My son was so thrilled and told me the baked nachos are yummy and requested me to make it again. I will post the recipe for those whole wheat chips soon.
The chapati to be rolled should not be too thick otherwise it will take more time to bake and make samosa hard. It should be around 2mm thick.
So what are you waiting for? start baking the samosa and enjoy them with a cup of hot tea or serve it as chat with chole or ragda or as a samosa sandwich!
Baked Samosa
Ingredients
For Dough
- 1.25 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp fine semolina If you have coarse semolina just pulse it once in the mixer grinder
- 1/4 cup cornflour
- 2 tbsp ghee melted and sizzling hot
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp oil for smoothening the dough
- water for kneading the dough
Stuffing
- 1 tbsp oil
- 4 medium potato boiled and mashed
- 1/2 cup green pea boiled
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste adding garlic is optional. You can also add chili paste for extra spicy taste.
- 2 tsp red chili powder or as per taste
- 1 tsp coriander cumin powder dhania jeera powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds sauf
- 1/4 tsp hing
- 1/2 tsp haldi
- 1.5 tsp dry mango powder amchur
- 1/4 cup coriander washed and finely chopped
- salt to taste
- oil for brushing samosa
coriander mint chutney
- 1/2 cup coriander washed and chopped
- 1/2 cup mint leaves washed and chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp rock salt sanchal
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 green chili chopped
- salt to taste
Instructions
Kneading dough
- In a mixing bowl add whole wheat flour, fine semolina, cornflour, sizzling hot ghee, oil, lemon juice and salt.
- Mix them well with the fingertips till it resembles like breadcrumbs.
- Add water and knead into a firm dough. Apply oil and cover and keep aside for 20 minutes.
- Knead again till the dough is smooth.
Making Stuffing
- Heat the oil in a pan, add cumin seed, fennel seed and asafoetida.
- When they crackle add ginger garlic paste. (you can avoid garlic) and saute till the raw smell goes away.
- Add turmeric powder and red chili powder. Mix well
- Add the boiled and mashed potato. Mix well. Cook for a minute.
- Add the remaining spices like coriander-cumin powder, dry mango powder and garam masala.
- Mix well and cook for a minute. Add finely chopped coriander. Mix well.
- Add the boiled peas.
- Mix well and cook for another minute. The stuffing is ready. Keep it aside to cool.
Making chapati for the outercovering
- Make balls from the dough. Take one ball and flatten it.
- Dust it with flour and roll it into a thin circle of around 12 cm diameter. Put it on a heated flat pan or tava. Bubbles will appear
- Flip it and cook lightly on the other side. Do not cook full.
- Remove in the plate to cool.
- Similarly, make other chapatis/tortillas.
Filling and baking samosa
- Divide the chapati into two parts.
- Take one part and make a cone from it by bringing both the edges together. Seal the edges by applying water.
- Put the prepared filling in the cone pressing lightly so that it is packed without any air pockets. Apply water on the upper edges and seal it.
- The samosa is ready to bake. Similarly, make other samosas.
- Place the prepared samosa on the baking tray lined with a baking paper. Brush oil on both the sides of samosa.
- Bake the samosa in a preheated oven at 200 C for 20 minutes or till crisp and golden.
- Serve it hot with coriander mint chutney and tamarind-date chutney.
coriander mint chutney
- In a mixture jar, add lemon juice, green chili, rock salt, salt, cumin seeds, chopped coriander, chopped mint leaves. Grind the chutney to a smooth paste. Remove the chutney in a bowl. It is ready to serve.
Very nice , yummy and interesting recipies. Trying them one by one. Very easy to follow. Directions given very clearly.
Hi,
Thank you so much. I am happy to share more and more recipes.
Regards
Swapna
Thanks for sharing the healthy version of samosa.