Air fryer Samosa is a favourite savory Indian snack which has an outer flaky pastry layer with a spiced potato and veggie filling. It is a favorite accompaniment with evening tea.
Samosas are traditionally slow deep fried making them brimming with calories. This was one of the reasons I avoided consuming them.
But making air fryer samosa in my Philips Airfryer helps me save Calories.
Samosa recipe remains the same if you want to give it a go with traditional deep frying.
All you'll do in the end is deep fry the samosas to a crisp golden brown in hot oil instead of air frying.
You can also do frozen samosa in air fryer.
You may also like: aloo tikki in air fryer, air fryer banana chips, air fryer namak pare, Kurkuri Bhindi | Crispy Okra in Airfryer.
You can check out these 45+ Indian air fryer recipes too.
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What is Samosa?
Samosa is a much-loved Indian snack that is traditionally vegan.
The most popular version has a spiced mashed potato and peas filling in a flaky outer pastry.
These are traditionally deep fried on a medium flame.
They are very popular evening snack with a nice cup of chai.
Ingredients
Ingredients for outer Pastry or shell
1. All-purpose flour (Maida): 1 cup flour is used here.
2. Spices: ½ tsp. of Carom seeds or Ajwain gives it a nice flavor and helps with digestion too.
3. Vegetable oil: 2 tbsp. is used for a flaky dough. You may use ghee as well if you consume dairy.
4. Cold water: Helps in making the dough firm.
5. Salt: ½ teaspoon or as per taste
Ingredients for the Filling
1. Potatoes: 3 medium-sized potatoes are boiled, peeled, and mashed. I like them to retain some shape.
2. Peas: ½ cup boiled green peas. I have used frozen ones here.
3. Oil: 2 tsp. oil is used for sauteing the filling.
4. Spices: This filling is quite flavorful and uses all these spices: ½ tsp. cumin seeds, asafoetida ⅛ tsp. (optional), turmeric powder ½ tsp., cayenne ½ tsp., garam masala ½ tsp., amchur ½ tsp. and coarsely ground coriander 1 tsp.
5. Ginger and green chilies: 2 finely chopped green chillies and 1-inch piece of grated ginger is used to flavor the filling.
6. Salt: It is used as per taste.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
1. Healthier Option: A traditionally deep fried samosa could range from 300 to 400 Calories.
Samosas made in the air fryer will be about 150 to 200 Calories. It will vary depending upon the size of your samosa and the oil used overall.
2. Flaky: Despite not deep frying, the outer crust is flaky and slightly crisp. It is delicious.
3. Mess free: I avoid deep frying due to the mess of hot oil and also what to do with the leftover oil.
Instructions
This recipe needs a few ingredients. You can source the spices in an Indian store.
Assemble all the spices along with processed flour or maida.
To make outer shell or pastry of samosa:
Take 1 cup maida or refined flour or all-purpose flour.
Sieve it with ½ tsp. salt. Add ½ tsp. ajwain or carrom seeds or use dried oregano.
Add 2 tbsp. of vegetable oil. I have used mustard oil here that is why it looks so yellow.
You can use any vegetable oil like peanut oil or olive oil.
You can also use melted ghee or clarified butter.
3. Now mix all these ingredients together to get a sand-like consistency.
This is important so that the pastry turns out flaky and not crispy.
Now slowly add 1-2 tbsp. of cold water at a time and knead a stiff dough while using as little water as possible.
Again, this is important as we want the outer shell to be flaky.
Keep this dough covered with a damp kitchen cloth or towel and keep aside for 20 minutes.
To prepare the samosa filling:
Take 1 tbsp. oil in a hot pain.
Add ½ tsp. cumin seeds along with finely chopped green chillies and grated ginger. Cook for a minute.
Add fresh or frozen peas.
If needed add a little water and cook till peas are done which takes about 4 minutes.
Now add in the mashed or chopped potatoes.
Add salt, asafoetida, cayenne or red chilli powder, ground coriander, garam masala powder and amchur or dried mango powder.
Mix well and cook till the filling mixture is dry.
Keep aside to cool down.
To assemble the samosa:
The outer pastry is made by rolling out a ball of dough and then cutting it into half.
2. Seal the straight end of the half oval by using water to form a conical pocket.
Add filling into the conical pocket leaving place at the ends to seal.
Seal by applying water and shut it tight. Your samosa with filling is ready.
Make all samosas in this manner.
How to Make Samosas in Air fryer
Pre-heat the air fryer at 160 C or 320 F for 5 minutes.
Now brush samosas with oil and place them in the Air fryer. Make sure that they are not overlapping.
Air fry at 160C or 320 F for about 8 minutes. Flip once midway for even cooking.
Now Air fry at 200 C or 390 F for about another 6-8 minutes till the samosas look done and golden.
Serve hot with green chutney or ketchup.
Your air fried samosa is ready to serve. It is super flaky and delicious.
To Deep fry samosa
Take oil in a pan and heat the oil on a low flame.
Now slowly slide the samosas in making sure not to crowd the pan.
Cook on low flame for about 6-8 minutes. This ensures that the samosas stay flaky and do not develop air bubbles.
Now increase the temperature to medium temperature. Fry further for about 6 minutes till the samosas are golden brown. Serve hot.
Overall, this samosa is a tasty, much-healthier version of this much-loved Indian snack.
Try it. Your delicious samosa is ready to be had with adrak chai.
FAQs
Yes, it is easy to air fry frozen samosas. Preheat air fryer at 360 F or 180 C for 5 minutes. Cook frozen samosas for about 8-10 minutes, flipping them once midway. Keep checking to ensure that they are done.
Yes you can. Preheat air fryer at 360 F or 180 C for 5 minutes. Place cold samosas and air fry for 2-3 minutes till they are hot to touch.
Variations
1. Dairy free: This recipe is is dairy free (if you use oil). For dairy eaters, you can use ghee in place of oil for a buttery taste.
2. Outer pastry: You could use wholewheat flour or a combination of wholewheat flour and millet flour for the outer pastry.
3. Use puff pastry: Instead of making outer crust from scratch, you can use readymade puff pastry dough or crescent roll as a substitute.
Fillings Alternatives
While potato and peas is a traditional filling for this samosa, you can use pretty much any filling of choice.
1. Cabbage, carrots and onion: Saute onions. Add grated cabbage and carrots. Use seasonings or sauces of choice.
Cook. Cool down and use as filling.
2. Lentils: Cooked lentils or beans make for an excellent high protein complex carbohydrate filling.
3. Tofu or Paneer: Crumbled tofu or paneer cooked with onions and spices make for an excellent filling.
4. Meat: In case you eat meat, minced chicken or other meat cooked with spices make for a good filling.
Expert Tips
1. Your dough must be stiff but not so stiff that you are not able to roll it out. Don’t use any flour to roll out dough.
It’s okay if when rolling out your shape is not perfect. The taste will be good.
2. Using cold water makes the dough nice and stiff that helps with flakiness.
3. You must rest the dough as mentioned so that the samosa shell turns out flaky.
4. You can add other veggies too or add chicken or mutton mince if you like to make meat samosa.
5. You must keep the filling very dry to avoid the samosas going soggy after you fry them and keep.
6. Once filled and sealed, you can keep the samosas in the fridge for up to 3 days to fry later.
7. You can also freeze the prepared samosas for upto 3 months and then air fry when ready to eat. This way you can make a large batch.
8. Your pastry will turn out flaky when you incorporate your shortening eg. Ghee or oil in your dough.
Don’t skimp on this or your samosa will not be flaky but hard and dry.
Here's the recipe card:
📖 Recipe Card
Air fryer Samosa
Equipment
Ingredients
To make outer Shell
- 1 cup maida or refined flour
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. ajwain or carrom seeds or use dried oregano
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
To make the filling
- 3 potatoes boiled
- ½ cup peas boiled
Spices
- ½ tsp. cayenne or chilli powder
- ⅛ tsp. asafoetida optional
- 1 tsp. ground coriander
- 1 tsp. amchur powder
- ½ tsp. garam masala
- 1 tsp. amchur or dried mango powder
- 2 chillies finely chopped
- 1 tbsp. ginger grated
- 2 tsp. vegetable oil
- ½ tsp. salt
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Instructions
To make outer shell of samosa:
- Take 1 bowl maida or refined flour. Sieve it with ½ tsp. salt. Add 1 tsp. ajwain or carrom seeds.
- Add 2 tbsp. of melted ghee or clarified butter. You could use oil too.
- Now mix all these ingredients together to get a sand like consistency.
- Now slowly add 1-2 tbsp. of water and knead a stiff dough while using as little water as possible.
- Keep this dough covered with a kitchen cloth and keep aside for 20 minutes.
To prepare the filling:
- Take 2 tsp. oil in a hot pain. Add ½ tsp. cumin seeds along with grated ginger and finely chopped green chillies. Saute for a minute.
- Add fresh or frozen peas. If needed add a little water and cook till peas are done or for 4 minutes.
- Now add in the mashed or chopped potatoes. Add salt, cayenne or red chilli powder, ground coriander, garam masala powder, asafoetida (optional) and amchur or dried mango powder. Mix well and cook till the filling mixture is dry. Keep aside to cool down.
- Keeping coriander seeds coarsely powdered gives the filling a nice texture.
To assemble the samosa:
- Divide the shell dough into round balls. Roll them out using a rolling pin. Make them oval in shape. Now cut them into halves.
- Use water on the straight cut side to seal the shell in the shape of an open cone.
- Now add the filling in the cone and leave enough space on top to seal the samosa.
- Add a little water along the lining to seal the samosa firmly shut.
- Make all samosas in this manner and keep aside for 15 minutes.
Air fryer Instructions
- Pre-heat the air fryer at 160 C or 320 F for 5 minutes.
- Now brush samosas with oil and place them in the air fryer.
- Air fry at 160 C or 320 F for about 8 minutes. Flip them once in the middle of the cook.
- Now Air fry at 200 deg C or 390 F for about another 6-8 minutes till the samosas look done and golden.
- Serve hot with green chutney or ketchup. Your air fried samosa is ready to serve. It is super flaky and delicious.
To Deep fry samosa
- Take oil in a pan and heat the oil on a low flame.
- Now slowly slide the samosas in making sure not to crowd the pan.
- Cook on low flame for about 6-8 minutes. This ensures that the samosas stay flaky and do not develop air bubbles.
- Now increase the temperature to medium temperature. Fry further for about 6 minutes till the samosas are golden brown. Serve hot.
Video
Notes
3. You must rest the dough as mentioned so that the samosa shell turns out flaky.
4. You can add other veggies too or add chicken or mutton mince if you like to make meat samosa.
5. You must keep the filling very dry to avoid the samosas going soggy after you fry them and keep.
6. Once filled and sealed, you can keep the samosas in the fridge for up to 3 days to fry later. 7. You can also freeze the prepared samosas for upto 3 months and then air fry when ready to eat. This way you can make a large batch.
8. Your pastry will turn out flaky when you incorporate your shortening eg. Ghee or oil in your dough. Don’t skimp on this or your samosa will not be flaky but hard and dry.
Nutrition
If you liked this recipe, I request you to leave a * star rating for this recipe either in the recipe card or in the comments. Thanks.
Sharmila says
Great post Rachna!It has been ages since I had my last Samosa! I want to buy an Airfryer but I am confused between Philips Airfryer and Usha Halogen Oven with airfryer attachment.Heard this oven is good. Any idea?
Rachna says
Thanks, Sharmila. I dislike the market samosa too. So much fat and loaded with unhealthy stuff like Dalda. Makes me sick. I have cursorily read about Usha Halogen Oven. It does not have airfryer attachment. It uses the same airfrying technique. Since it is glass, it looks nicer. It does the same baking, grilling, airfrying that an airfryer does. It has some extra features like cleaning and sterilizing which don't seem spectacular to me. My experience this far with Philips Airfryer has been really good. I should be putting up a review in a few days. Usha seems nice too. I guess, you will have to wait for someone who has actually used the product to review it. 🙂 Both these products are much faster than our conventional ovens.
CookieCrumbs Inc. says
Oh, the airfryer sounds too good to be true :/ Does it really banish all the calories that accumulate due to deep frying? Does it cook properly?
Rachna says
I will be doing a review of my airfryer soon and will be covering all the aspects of taste, calories etc. in that. To answer your questions: It does reduce calories because you are only brushing the fat instead of deep frying. Most dishes I've tried so far taste great. There are exceptions that I'll mention in the post. This samosa is wonderfully tasty but the texture of the outer covering is very different from a conventional samosa. Considering that those are achieved by excessive Dalda, I think this is an option worth exploring.
Bikramjit says
What a coincidence ha ha ha ha guess what ..
I just came back home and I bought some samosa and channa..
No other way than to buy from the shop..but we have a great shop and they make yum samosa. ..
Rachna says
It is quite a time consuming affair. If you have it once in a while, makes sense to just buy it from the halwai and consume. 🙂
Ravish Mani says
Healthy & tasty! Wonderful 🙂
Rachna says
Thanks, Ravish. 🙂
Dagny says
Try adding some extra 'moyen' in the maida next time. I think the pastry will come out flakier.
Rachna says
Yep, I thought 4 tbsp. oil was already quite a bit but I guess it needs more. 🙂
Tales of a Traveler says
I love samosa <3 <3
Rachna says
Me too. But the traditional samosa is really so heavy to be had more often.
shanayatales says
Thanks for the recipe. Will try the baked version of this as I don't have an airfryer. Have heard a lot about this Philips one. Will look forward to your review. Or have u done one already?
Just curious. Have u tried baked samosas? If yes, do they taste similar to the airfryer method?
Rachna says
No, I haven't tried the baked version but I have a feeling that they must be tasting similar. I will be doing the review soon. Haven't done it yet. Good to see you after a while. Shantala. How was your India trip?
shanayatales says
Oh Mumbai was terribly hot, but we still had loads of fun. Met a lot of family and eat a lot of yummy food. 🙂
Rachna says
That sounds like fun. 😀
Shilpa Garg says
I love Samosas and these are such a healthy version of the ones that I usually eat!!
Rachna says
That these are and they taste good too, Shilpa. 🙂
Indywrites says
This is good, I am a fan of fried food and have been trying to use the air fryer feature in my microwave. Hope to make these samosas soon. 🙂
I am now very motivated. Thanks Rachna.
Rachna says
Thanks, Inderpreet. Glad you liked the recipe. Just increase the oil in your dough to make the pastry flakier. Hope you enjoy them.
Sid Balachandran says
Your 'Airfryer' posts have almost got me convinced to invest in one 🙂
Rachna says
You will like it. It is really quite simple and fast. Wait for my review post. 😉
Sid Balachandran says
Waiting 🙂
Saru (@BaawriBasanti) says
I think we have a similar product here. Your samosas like healthier. Do share your tips to make pasty more flaky.
parulthakur24 says
Good to know that the air fryer was effective. I don't eat deep fried stuff but using an air fryer seems possible. Thank you for sharing!
Rachna says
I like pakoras and samosas but eat them very rarely. Now I will eat them more for sure. 🙂
Mithila Menezes says
I clearly remember the advertisements made by this chef on YouTube through his cooking shows.. Heard of Vaah Chef? He's the one.
I've been bugging my mum to buy this super awesome device since then. To no avail. Coz dad is the one holding the purse-strings!
Maybe after they read this blog post I might get to devour some Crispy samosas and still manage to stay on my diet? Maybe!
Rachna says
Yes, I love that colorful chef. He is quite funny too. hahaha For your sake, Mithila, I hope mummy and daddy buy the device. It is quite good actually.
Sreesha says
I was curious to find out if this works ever since I saw the ad on TV! Glad to know it does.
I used to try the microwave-baked versions of deep fried foods. But they are, to be honest, not nearly as tasty as their deep fried, unhealthy counterparts!
Rachna says
Yes, Sreesha. I waited for a few months because I had my doubts too. But now that I have been trying it for weeks, it is coming up trumps. I am doing a review of the airfryer where I will explore the pros and cons in further detail.
Sabyasachi Patra says
I don't understand a thing about air friers. However, talk of samosas and I can walk that extra mile to have it. There have been times when I have parked my safari near road side stalls to savour the samosas and some gravy curry. It serves as a quick lunch without wasting time as I don't drive during night. So saving time during daytime is very important for me while driving. And I enjoy driving, so I don't drive too fast - just about 100 or 120 kmph. So invariably I keep a watch out for outlets selling samosas. 🙂
Rachna says
That is an interesting ode to our favorite snack, Sabyasachi. During my last trip to Rajasthan, we ended up having a lot of kachoris and puris for breakfast. They fill you up nicely and keep hunger pangs at bay. But, at home, I prefer to have them very rarely.
John says
Great recipe. And very simple to follow instructions. Love the fact that preparation and cooking time is less when frying with an air fryer.
Rachna says
Thanks John
Beena Anil says
Thanks for the airfryer infromation. May I know which airfryer you purchased? what was the capacty and cost?. I would like to bake,grill and airfry different stuff. Which is best suitable, a convection microwave oven, air fryer or an OTG?
Rachna says
I have both an Air fryer and OTG. I definitely prefer Air fyrer for shorter cooking times and crisper food. Here is the review of the Air fryer I currently use: https://www.rachnacooks.com/2015/05/28/philips-airfryer-user-review/
Luana says
Wao, crispy samosa is really perfect along with tea,i love the recipe.
Rachna says
Thanks Lunana
Rashmi Mahajan says
Cook this at 80 temp for 40mins.. Then it doesn't dries out the pasty... Won't be flaky but won't be too hard to bite as well.
Rachna says
Thanks for the tip.
fatty says
hi
was wondering if you knew how long to airfry somosas from the freezer?
thanks
Rachna says
Haven't tried that so far. Perhaps the instructions on the pack help or you could try by instinct the first time and see.
Ashlie Lou Rianna says
Superb blog!
Nart at Cooking with Nart says
I love samosa but have never made it before. Luckily I have an air fryer so I can use this recipe and I reckon it'll be much healthier than the restaurant version!
Rachna says
I do hope you enjoy making it.
Shashi at SavorySpin says
I haven't made samosa in the air fryer yet and cannot wait to try your recipe out - I especially love the ajwain or carrom seeds in the crust!
Rachna says
Good to know. Thanks Shashi.
Dannii says
I love finding new ways to use my slow cooker, and I never would have thought to make samosas in it. These look great.
Rachna says
Oh yes! This is so perfect to cook in Air fryer. Thanks.
Alexandra says
What a delicious and flavoursome recipe - I love samosa, and I love how delicious they work in the air fryer.
Rachna says
Thanks Alexandra
Danielle Wolter says
I don't have an airfryer, but baked them and they came out great! Thanks for the step by step instructions!
Rachna says
Glad to know that the recipe worked for you. Thanks.
Pat says
This was my first time making samosas and they turned out perfectly! The samosas came out super crispy in the air fryer and I liked that they were healthier than deep-fried.
Blaine says
Never thought I can cook a delicious samosa using my air fryer. Love it!!
Rena says
When we used to have potlucks at work, one guy would bring in samosas made by his wife. They are awesome! I never wanted to make them myself until I saw your recipe. The air fryer makes it so easy! The results were outstanding. Now I'll be making these on repeat!
Jenn says
I loved how easy this was to make in the air fryer! The directions were so easy to follow, will be making this again it was a hit with the teenagers!
Emilie says
Love excuses to use my air fryer. I've never had anything like this before. Yum!