Sweet Potato & Butternut Samosas

Sweet Potato Samosas are delicious pastry triangles filled with a savory mixture of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and warm Indian spices. Our samosa recipe is baked (not fried!), and includes three sweet and savory dipping sauces. Samosas are perfect for an appetizer, light lunch, or packing in a picnic.

What are Samosas?

Samosas are savory little pyramid-shaped pastries filled with a mixture of potatoes, onions, and spices. Often associated with Indian or Tibetan cuisine, samosas are now enjoyed by people around the world.

For this sweet potato samosa recipe, we made a few modifications to what would be considered traditional samosas, which are customarily filled with a potato and pea filling.

The most obvious change we made was to swap out the peas for butternut squash. (Because I don't like peas.) This led to trading out the regular potatoes for white sweet potatoes, because sweet potatoes pair so well with butternut squash. We added curry powder and other warm spices to boost the butternut squash flavor, too.

Dipping sauces almost always accompany samosas, and we’ve included recipes for three of our favorite sauces here: tamarind, mint, and a vintage Moosewood dipping sauce.

Samosas can be served as an appetizer, entrée, or snack. They are usually deep-fried, but baking (as is the case with this recipe) or air frying are healthier ways to cook them without sacrificing flavor.

Jump to:

• What are Samosas?
• Samosa Ingredients
• How to Make Baked Samosas
• Samosa Dipping Sauces
• Variations
• Top Tip
• FAQ
• Related Recipes
• What to Serve with Samosas
• Sweet Potato & Butternut Samosas

Samosa Ingredients

Sweet Potato Filling

• White sweet potatoes: We recommend using white-fleshed sweet potatoes. We have made this recipe with orange sweet potatoes, and they tasted fine, but the white sweet potatoes lend a more traditional potato texture to the finished samosas.
• Butternut squash: You can sub in any orange or yellow winter squash for the butternut. (Or peas, if that's your thing.)
  • Butternut squash is famously difficult to cut. Be careful and take your time.
• Onions: We prefer to use yellow or white onions for this recipe; however, any onion will work.
• Ginger: Use fresh ginger if you can. You can substitute ½ teaspoon of dry ginger if you can't find fresh.
• Garlic: Fresh garlic is always best; however, in a pinch, you can sub in ½ teaspoon of garlic powder or granulated garlic.
• Canola oil (or light olive oil)
• Mustard seeds
• Ground coriander
• Curry powder
• Nutmeg
• Kosher salt
• Lemon juice
• Cayenne (optional)

Yogurt Dough

You can use any kind of resilient pastry dough to make baked samosas, including puff pastry, phyllo dough, and premade pie dough. (Note that you may have to adjust the baking time and temperature.)

How to Make Baked Samosas

This Sweet Potato & Butternut Samosas recipe was inspired by "Samosas", Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1974.

Sweet Potato Filling

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil, and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the cubed butternut squash, and sauté until it just begins to soften.

Add the onion, and stir until the squash is tender and the onion is soft and translucent.¹

Add the garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, coriander, curry, nutmeg and salt. Stir over medium heat for a minute or two to release the flavors of the spices.²

Put the cubed sweet potatoes into a medium saucepan and cover with water.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the potatoes are tender; about 15 minutes.³

Drain and mash very lightly – just break them into pieces. You want them to be very chunky: not a smooth mash.⁴

Combine squash mixture with mashed sweet potatoes. Stir in lemon juice.⁵

Allow the filling to cool at least 15 minutes before filling the pastries.⁶

Yogurt Dough

Mix the flour and salt together. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and add the yogurt.⁷

Mix with your hand to form a smooth dough. Add extra flour if you need to keep the dough from being sticky.⁸ Knead the dough for about five minutes, then cover until the filling has sufficiently cooled.⁹

Assembling Pastries

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).

Roll out the samosa dough and cut nine 6-inch circles.¹⁰ Cut each circle in half.¹¹

I cut the circles using a 6-inch hand-pie maker. Cutting around the outside of a small bowl works too.

Holding one half circle of dough in your palm, wet half of the straight edge with a fingertip of water.¹² Fold the edges together to form a cone.^13-14

Fill the cone with about a tablespoon of filling.¹⁵

Wet half of the top of the cone with water, then pleat the side opposite the seam and pinch the top edge together in the middle.¹⁶

Roll the top edge over slightly to seal.¹⁷ It works best when the seam/roll is placed opposite the straight sealed edge.¹⁸

Bake Samosas

Place the prepared samosas rolled side down on a parchment-lined baking tray.¹⁹

Bake at 425°F (220°C) for about 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Tip: Cooking times are based on using the yogurt dough in this recipe. If you use a different dough, adjust the cooking time and temperature for that dough.

Samosa Dipping Sauces

Moosewood Dipping Sauce

Note: I couldn’t find the Moosewood Dipping Sauce recipe in the current (40th Anniversary) edition, but it's in my original copy! This sauce is delicious, so you're welcome.

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Simmer 10 minutes to reduce slightly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Mint Chutney

Put mint, cilantro, ginger, lime, water, salt and pepper in a food processor and process until it becomes a sauce. (It’s OK if there’s still little leaf bits.)

Heat canola oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and fry until you hear popping; about a minute.

Add fried mustard seeds to sauce dipping sauce and serve.

Tamarind Dipping Sauce

Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add cumin seeds, garam masala, and ginger. Cook and stir for about a minute to activate the spices.

Stir in the water, and then the sugar and tamarind paste.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes; until the mixture turns deep brown. (It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.)

Variations

Vegan: To make this samosa recipe vegan, simply substitute vegan yogurt for dairy-based yogurt in the dough. The filling is fully vegan already.

Top Tip

Leftover Pastry: Spread the leftovers bits of pastry on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with sugar and bake while you assemble the samosas. It will take about 15 minutes at 425°F (220°C).

FAQ

Related Recipes

What to Serve with Samosas

Samosas can be served as an appetizer, entrée, or snack; always with some kind of sauce (i.e., mint sauce, tamarind sauce, chutney, etc.)

You can pack a light, satisfying vegetarian lunch or picnic with samosas, a simple raita, and a serving of Moroccan Carrot Salad, Armenian-style Eggplant & Carrot Salad or Baigan Achari. For a heartier meal, try pairing samosas with Apricot Chicken Tagine, Chicken Saag, or Armenian Lentil Stew with Eggplant.

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Originally Published January 13, 2015. This post has been updated with new content, images, and recipe instructions to improve reader experience.