Oriental garden samosas

Samosas are ubiquitous to Indian street food culture. Having its origins in the heart of India (central India), this dish has found its place in almost all parts of India. Divine Spice Box brings to you a unique re-look at this amazing dish and adds to it some oriental zing for tantalizing those already mouth watering taste buds of yours !!

Samosa – An ultimately comforting, sinfully delicious and addictive Indian snack dish, samosas are not only dear to Indian hearts but have found such immense popularity world over that how ever far you reside from India, you find these triangular pockets of happiness all around the world. As i love to say ” When in dullness, savour a samosa and brighten your spirits”, i guess this is enough a proof of my love for this dish.

I have been away from the blogging world for a few weeks now and have been re-gaining my Indian cooking spirits to make sure this year Divine Spice Box infuses its readers with some authentic Indian cuisines. So, to mark the beginning, i thought to myself .. what better way to start than to get some spicy snacks to go along our conversation as we sip our chai tea latte? The answer was simple and obvious – a plate of spicy, pipping hot samosas please !! 🙂

The traditional recipe calls for a fried pastry with a savory, spicy potato-peas filling. I offcourse had to take the road less traveled 😛 I guess my creativity seeks an outburst every time i am in the kitchen and even though i start with an absolute conventional recipe, the result is usually unconventional, mostly delicious and truly satisfying.

I like to call this make over recipe Oriental Garden Samosas . With oriental spiced filling and a healthy, glowing green dough, this dish gets a new look and wins my votes.

Oriental Garden Samosas

Servings: 12 samosas
Time: 1 hour
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Recipe

This recipe contains 2 main components : Garden green dough and Oriental filling

Garden green dough

1 cup all purpose flour
1 bunch of spinach (about 250 gms) – blanched and pureed/ finely chopped
2 tsp sesame seeds
4 tsp vegetable oil
Salt to taste
1/4 cup of cold water
Oil for frying

Oriental filling

1/2 cup boiled noodles
2-3 spring onions – thinly shredded
1/4 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/4 cup mung bean sprouts (optional)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp vegetable oil

Method

We shall start by preparing the garden green dough and keeping it to rest while we prepare the oriental filling.

For garden green dough

Take a flat bowl. To this, sieve in the all purpose flour. Add the spinach puree, vegetable oil, sesame seeds and salt. Combine well to form a soft dough (depending on the quantity and consistency of the spinach puree, adjust and add cold water accordingly). If u want a bright rich green color, you can also add in 2- 3 drops of green food color.
Once the dough is prepared, take a moist cloth and cover the dough. Rest for about 15 minutes.

For oriental filling

Take a pan. Add in oil and to this add the spring onions and saute on high flame for 1 minute. Once the onions are transparent, add in the cabbage, carrots and sprouts. Saute for another 1 minute.
Once the vegetables are sauteed and half cooked, add in the boiled noodles. Now add salt, pepper, soya sauce and vinegar and toss together on high flame.
Cook for 2 -3 minutes on high/medium-high flame and shut the flame. The filling is ready.

For oriental garden samosas

Take the garden green dough and divide into 6 equal portions. Now, take one portion and roll out into a 6″ dia circle.
Now with the help of a knife, cut the circle into 2 parts to make 2 semi-circles. With each semi-circle, form a cone.
Now, stuff the samosa well with the filling. Seal the top edges carefully with water. Keep aside and repeat the process with all the samosas.
For frying, take a deep pan. Add in enough oil and heat.
Once the oil gets hot, reduce the flame to medium heat and drop a couple of samosas together at a time in the oil to fry. The oil needs to be maintained at medium heat throughout frying the samosas.
Once the samosas are evenly fried, remove from oil and drain on a paper towel. Repeat with all samosas. You could also bake the samosas. For baking, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the samosas for about 30 minutes, turning over half way.
Serve hot with tamarind chutney (recipe here), mint-coriander chutney (recipe here) or spicy sichuan sauce (recipe here)

These samosas are simply awesome!! With the look so healthy and glowing with green, the temptation takes a new color. The real zinger though is the surprising and satisfying filling which adds a unique flavour and taste to this conventional dish. The spinach green dough is also a great way to incorporate some cool nutrients to the food and the filling makes this dish a fun food for parties. If u like to venture into more colours, try tomato or beetroot for red and maybe carrot for orange.. how about some marbled effect.. the sky is the limit !!

Try making these the next time you want to make something fun and I am sure these samosas will be the center of conversation over your next house party 🙂 Happy cooking !!

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