Nayna is a working professional with a passion for cookery, food photography and food styling. She loves to travel and takes great pleasure in learning about vegetarian multinational cuisines. In Nayna’s spare time she is also a freelance writer and food blogger, writing  simplyfood  a vegetarian food blog that hosts a collection of recipes which are tried and tested at home, prepared with fresh ,healthy ingredients and citrusspice, a food and lifestyle blog where she writes about various topics to reflect her other interests.

Nayna has written a step by step guide for us on how to make vegetable samosas (those delectable Indian snacks with a spicy vegetable filling encased in flaky, crispy pastry), something that looks so difficult but fear not we have no excuse now as this guide explains all!

Over to Nayna…

Prep time: 30 minutes  Cooking time 10 minutes Total time: 40 minutes Yield: 18 samosas

Ingredients

• 2 large potatoes peeled and diced
• 2 medium carrots peeled and grated
• 120g / 4 oz frozen peas
• 120g / 4 oz frozen sweet corn
• 1 tablespoon fresh coriander finely chopped
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 1.5 teaspoons chilli powder
• 0.5 teaspoon clove powder
• 0.5 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• Juice of half a lemon
• 0.5 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 900 ml sunflower oil for frying.
• For flour glue:
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 4 tablespoons water
• Springroll / Samosa wrappers 36 strips

 

NB-You can buy wrappers in the freezer section of any Asian supermarket or large supermarkets where they have an Asian section. They either come in big squares which are used for spring rolls. These can be cut to form three strips or you can get the Samosa wrappers which are already cut into strips.

 

Method:

1. Defrost the spring roll / Samosa wrappers and wrap them in clean tea towel and keep aside to stop them drying out.
2. Place the diced potatoes, grated carrots, peas and sweetcorn into a microwaveable glass bowl with lid. Add two tablespoons of water and cook for 7-8 minutes until vegetables are fully cooked. Remove from microwave and drain to remove any liquid.
3. In a large wok add the oil and wait for it to heat up, once it’s hot add the mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Add the vegetables, followed by the spices, salt, chilli powder, cinnamon powder and clove powder. Toss the mixture until all the spices are blended into the vegetables.
4. Remove the vegetable filling from the heat and stir in the lemon juice, sugar and fresh coriander and mix well. Leave the mixture to cool.
5. In a bowl add the flour and water and make a dropping consistency paste, this is the flour glue we will use to stick the pastry.
6. Following the pictures below fold the samosas. Using the glue to stick the pastry.

• Step 1 – Lay two samosa wrappers one on top of the other so they are two layers in thickness
• Step 2 – Fold the right side of the wrapper half way across.
• Step 3 – Spread some flour glue on the area marked with the red triangle.
• Step 4 – Fold over the left side of the wrapper to cover the glued area to form a triangle.

• Step 5 – Using scissors trim the right side of the wrapper to neaten the edge.
• Step 6 – Trim the left side of the wrapper to neaten the pastry.
• Step 7 – Open up the wrapper to form a cone shape.
• Step 8 – Fill the cone with a tablespoon of the samosa filling.

• Step 9 – Spread some flour glue within the red triangle shape and fold the flap down to seal the samosa.
• Step 10 – Spread some more flour glue within the red marked area on the second layer of the wrapper and fold the flap over the first fold to seal the samosa.
• Step 11 – Seal the corners so that there are no gaps in the samosa.
• Step 12 – Place the folded samosa on a tray and cover it with a tea towel, repeat procedure for remaining wrappers and filling

7. Heat the oil in a frying to 180 degrees C. Gently drop 3-4 samosas in the hot oil and deep fry until golden brown in colour. Remove samosas from the oil and drain them on kitchen paper. Repeat for remaining samosas.

8. Serve the samosas with chilli sauce, mint chutney or tomato sauce.

Let us know how you get on and tweet/instagram us all your photos if you make these delicious vegetable samosas.

Thank you to Nayna, as well her blog Simply Food, you can find her on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.