This Baked Beef Samosa recipe is a delicious combination of lean beef, potatoes, peas, sweet yellow onions and spices wrapped up in a golden pastry shell for a savory, crunchy appetizer.
Have you ever eaten a samosa? If you haven’t then just trust me, these are savory triangles of pure delight!
What is a Samosa?
A samosa is a fried or baked pastry with a savory filling, such as spiced potatoes, onions, peas, cheese, beef and other meats, or lentils. The samosa is made in different shapes, depending on the region, including triangular, cone, or half-moon shapes. Samosas are a popular entrée, appetizer, or snack in the local cuisines of South Asia, Western Asia, Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, and Africa.
Make Lamb, Chicken or Turkey Samosas
While this recipe is for beef samosas, you can switch out the ground beef for ground lamb, chicken, or turkey and instead make lamb samosas, chicken samosas or turkey samosas with this recipe.
Make Time for this Recipe
This beef samosa recipe takes a little time to make due to the time it takes to fill the pastry, but it is fun and gets done faster if you invite a family member or friend to help! The time to make this on the recipe card assumes you are doing it yourself. It takes about 2 minutes to fill each beef samosa and since this yields 25-30, the time to fill the samosas is about an hour.
Calories of Samosa
In this beef samosa recipe, there are only 136 calories per samosa if you make 30 samosas. So, go ahead, have two!
How to Make Samosas
Here is the process of how to make samosas.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Assemble the samosa ingredients for this beef samosa recipe.
Make the Samosa Filling
Here is how to make the beef samosa filling.
Fill a medium-sized saucepan with water, salt lightly and bring the water to a boil.
Gently pour in the potatoes and peas, being careful not to get any hot water on you.
Cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
Drain off the water and then mash the potatoes and peas together, then set them aside.
Use a large saucepan and pour in the vegetable oil and heat it with medium high heat.
Add the cumin seeds and bay leaf to the vegetable oil and brown for 60-90 seconds.
Mix in the onions and ground beef to the large saucepan. Cook until the beef is browned and the onions are soft, about 5-10 minutes.
Mix in the fresh ginger and garlic.
Mix in the seasonings: cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili powder, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, salt and black pepper.
Mix in the mashed potatoes and peas.
Stir the mixture until evenly combined.
Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until it has cooled enough to handle easily.
After the mixture has cooled, mix in the cilantro and green chile peppers into the samosa filling.
Fill the Beef Samosas
Please view the photos below and the video in this post to see exactly how to easily fill these samosas.
Open the phyllo package and unroll it and lay it onto wax paper.
Peel off one phyllo sheet and place it onto another piece of wax paper, then cover the rest of the phyllo sheets with wax paper or they will dry out quickly.
Brush the melted butter across the phyllo sheet.
How to Fold a Samosa
Now, you need to know how to fold a samosa.
Taking hold of the long side of the phyllo sheet, fold one third of the phyllo sheet over.
Then do the same with the other long side so that you have a long phyllo sheet with three layers.
Take one end of the short side of the phyllo sheet and fold it over to form a triangle, where some of the folded phyllo sheet will be outside of the phyllo sheet underneath.
Brush butter on the phyllo sheet above the triangle.
Fold it over one more time for another triangle, where the edges will align together. Please note that it helps to put your finger at the top of the previous triangle to get the fold where you want it. This creates the pocket for the filling.
Pick up the phyllo sheet gently and open the pocket for the filling.
Place approximately 2-3 tablespoons of the samosa filling into the pocket of each phyllo sheet.
You want to fill the pocket, but not overfill it, since you don’t want the filling coming out when it bakes.
Fold the triangle three or four more times to complete the samosa and set it on the baking sheet.
Cook
Place the samosas on a greased baking sheet and cook for 15-20 minutes until the corners are golden brown.
Serve
Serve warm with The Wanderlust Kitchen Super Simple Mango Chutney, plain yogurt, and/or sour cream.
These homemade samosas are so good and healthier than fried samosas. Just look at the tasty filling inside!
Having some mango chutney, yogurt or sour cream on the side provides for some additional flavors that compliment the baked samosas. I personally like to mix the mango chutney with yogurt and use that as a dip for these baked beef samosas.
Baked Beef Samosa Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 4 cups baking potatoes peeled and cubed - about 2 large potatoes
- 4 cups sweet yellow onions - finely chopped (about 2 large onions)
- 1 cup frozen peas - thawed
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic - minced
- 1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon . ground black pepper
- 1 bay leaf - finely chopped
- 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 Tablespoons chopped green chile peppers
- 1 16 ounce package phyllo dough
- 12 Tablespoons salted butter - melted
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make the Samosa Filling
- Fill a medium-sized saucepan with water, salt lightly and bring the water to a boil.
- Gently pour in the potatoes and peas, being careful not to get any hot water on you.
- Cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
- Drain off the water and then mash the potatoes and peas together, then set them aside.
- Use a large saucepan and pour in the vegetable oil and heat it with medium high heat.
- Add the cumin seeds and bay leaf to the vegetable oil and brown for 60-90 seconds.
- Mix in the onions and ground beef to the large saucepan. Cook until the beef is browned and the onions are soft, about 5-10 minutes.
- Mix in the fresh ginger and garlic.
- Mix in the seasonings: cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili powder, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, salt and black pepper.
- Mix in the mashed potatoes and peas until evenly combined.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until it has cooled enough to handle easily.
- Mix in the cilantro and green chile peppers into the samosa filling mixture.
Fill the Samosas
- Please view the photos and / or video in this post to see exactly how to easily fill these samosas.
- Open the phyllo package and unroll it and lay it onto wax paper.
- Peel off one phyllo sheet and place it onto another piece of wax paper, then cover the rest of the phyllo sheets with wax paper or they will dry out quickly.
- Brush the melted butter across the phyllo sheet.
- Taking hold of the long side of the phyllo sheet, fold one third of the phyllo sheet over, then do the same with the other long side so that you have a long phyllo sheet with three layers.
- Take one end of the short side of the phyllo sheet and fold it over to form a triangle, where some of the folded phyllo sheet will be outside of the phyllo sheet underneath.
- Brush butter on the phyllo sheet above the triangle and fold it over one more time for another triangle, where the edges will align together. Please note that it helps to put your finger at the top of the previous triangle to get the fold where you want it. This creates the pocket for the filling.
- Pick up the phyllo sheet gently and open the pocket for the filling.
- Place approximately 2-3 tablespoons of the samosa filling into the pocket of each phyllo sheet.
- Fold the triangle three or four more times to complete the samosa and set it on the baking sheet.
Cook the Samosas
- Place the samosas on a greased baking sheet and cook for 15-20 minutes until the corners are golden brown.
Serve
- Serve warm with The Wanderlust Kitchen Super Simple Mango Chutney, plain yogurt, and/or sour cream.
VIDEO
Nutrition
If one is using 1 16 sheet phyllo pastry for the recipe and 1 sheet per samosa how does one get 25-30 samosas?
Hi Karen, it is a 16 ounce package of phyllo pastry. If you are using the Athens brand, a 16 ounce package has approximately 36 – 9” x 14” Phyllo Sheets; with 18 sheets per 8 ounce roll. So, there is plenty for 30 samosas.
Hi there,
quick question, can i make them a day in advance and keep in the fridge? or will the dough soften too much?
Or can i maybe freeze them and cook from frozen?
Basically, what is the max time between folding and baking. As i am making a large dinner, i’d like to have them ready to go in the oven when everyone’s here 🙂
Thanks!
Ina
Hi Ina, yes, you can make them a day in advance and keep in the fridge, then cook them the next day. If you want to make them more than a day in advance, then make them and freeze them uncooked. Put them in the fridge the night before you want to cook them so that they can thaw and then cook them the next day.
So I’m not the most proficient chef (loose term!) And this took me a while because I’m over analytical, but my goodness, it was worth the time spent!!
The meals I made were delicious so thank you for the recipes. I’m looking forward to trying some more now that I have spices aplenty ready for attempt number 2!
Nick,
Yes, these take some time, but are sooooo good! Glad you loved them!
– Linda