Baked mini dal samosas
A guilt free samosa recipe!
Ingredients
For the samosa pastry (dough)
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
- 1 tsp salt
- water to knead the dough
For the samosa stuffing
- 1/2 cup split and skinless moong beans (moong dal)
- 2 cups gram flour (besan)
- 3 tbsp cumin seeds
- 3 tbsp coriander seeds
- 2 tbsp fennel seeds (snauf)
- 2 tbsp dry mango powder (amchur powder)
- 2 tbsp pink salt
- 2 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp jaggery
- 2 tbsp peanuts
- 5-6 kashmiri red chillis
- 2 cloves
- 2 cardamoms
- salt to taste
For the green chutney
- 1 cup fresh coriander leaves roughly chopped
- 1 inch ginger roughly chopped
- 5 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 4-5 fresh green chillies
- pink salt to taste
- water
Instructions
Preparing the dough
- Mix the flour with salt, carom seeds and the oil
- The flour should be able to hold it's shape (when tightly held in your palm) after it is mixed with oil
- Knead a tight dough by gradually adding water
- Cover the dough and keep it aside for 30 minutes
The samosa stuffing
- Wash throughly and soak the moong dal in water for an hour
- To a grinding jar add the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, kashmiri chillies, black peppercorns, clove, cardamom, pink salt, 3-4 tablespoons gram flour and grind it to a coarse powder
- Heat a pan and add the peanuts, fresh spice mix and the the remaining gram flour
- Roast on low heat until the gram flour turns fragrant
- Add the drained dal and continue roasting until it changes colour
- Add the jaggery, pink salt, amchur powder and cook until the jaggery completely melts
- Remove from flame and cool completely
Making the samosas
- Divide the dough into lime sized balls. You should be able to make 10-12 of them
- Roll out a 6 centimeter disc from the dough ball and cut it into semi circles
- Roll and flatten the semi circle once again
- Apply some water on the outside diameter (base)
- Overlap one side of the base on to the other so as to form a cone. The water applied on the diameter will help it stick and form a cone
- Fill two teaspoons of the spiced dal stuffing in the cone
- Make a small pleat in the centre of the curved side and stick it to the base. Now seal the left and right sides to form the samosa
- Once all samosas are shaped, line them on a baking tray and put them in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees C, for 10 minutes
- Remove them, brush a little oil on them and bake again for 10 minutes
- Remove and serve the baked mini dal samosas with ketchup and/or green chutney
Coriander-mint chutney (green chutney)
- Put all ingredients under for the chutney in a mixer-grinder and make a smooth paste
- Add water so that the chutney is neither too thick or too runny
- Enjoy with the samosas!
Notes
- If you are a beginner, use only a teaspoon of the filling for the samosa. This will aid you in shaping them
- The kashmiri chillis are for the colour and not heat
- Oil is brushed on the samosas mid-way to give them a brown colour. This is optional
- You could also use ghee to knead the dough
- You could fry these samosas too. Traditionally, that is how its made
- tbsp - tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon