Vegetable Samosa Recipe

This classic vegetable samosa recipe makes a real standby for any nibbles and drinks party, a great starter for your next curry meal or a tasty snack at any time. Although this is the classic recipe, some shortcuts can be made, such as using shop bought filo pastry instead of making your own dough. Personally, I prefer to know that the finished article is 100% homemade, but the choice is yours!

Vegetable Samosa Recipe
Dough: 
180 grams (6 oz) white plain flour (or a 50/ 50 mixture of wholemeal and white)
Large pinch of baking powder
Small pinch of salt
25 grams (1 oz) butter or vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter)
Enough water to make a soft dough

Vegetable stuffing:
180 grams (6 oz) potatoes, washed, cut into small dice and boiled until just cooked
90 grams (3 oz) peas fresh or frozen, but must be pre-cooked
Oil for frying
1  small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, washed, peeled and fairly finely grated
1 -2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped or some ground chillies, according to taste
Couple of sprigs of fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Lemon juice
Pepper and salt seasoning to your taste

Make the dough first by sifting the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub in the fat (butter, oil or ghee) and mix in enough water to make a soft, smooth dough by kneading and then cover and store in a cool place - a plastic bag with a tiny amount of vegetable oil can be used for this purpose. (Of course, if you're using shop-bought filo pastry, you can skip this step!)
While the dough is resting, start on the filling. Fry the onion until soft, then add the grated carrot, dry spices and chilli. Next add the pre-cooked potatoes and peas and fry until the mixture is coated by the spice mixture and beginning to come together. At this point add the coriander leaves, lemon juice and seasoning as required, stir well, remove from the heat and then set aside to cool.

Next knead the dough again and divide into around 12 to 18 evenly sized balls depending on how large you want the finished samosa to be. Each ball is then rolled out to a 4 - 6 inch round, dusting with flour as required and then cut in half to make two “half moon” shapes. With one of these half moons fold the cut edge in half to make a sort of empty ice cream cone and crimp together using a fork and perhaps a little water (or a glue paste of flour and water) for better sealing of the edges. Once you have achieved a solid empty cone you can then fill it with the cooled vegetable filling.
Warning: do not over-fill as you then need to seal the top edge of the cone with the flour paste and fork crimping again.
Once you have prepared all the samosas this way you will then need to deep fry them, a few at a time, in hot oil until golden brown. Let them drain on kitchen paper. Alternatively you could use folded triangles of filo pastry and possibly bake them in the oven, basted with a little oil.
Experiment and you will soon have your own perfect vegetable samosa recipe.