Healthy option: Filo Pastry Vegetable Samosa Pie

Samosa pie by Chinskitchen

Samosa…..hmmm a truly popular snack enjoyed by adults and kids and known by all, so many fillings and flavours to choose from, sweet to savoury hands up if you are a fan of eating samosa’s? Personally I love the traditional mixed vegetable samosas although a variety of different vegetarian fillings such as paneer, soya mince,potato etc are delicious too. What is your favourite filling? Do you stop at just one samosa or do you devour the wonderful taste and aroma of quite a few? Well I know I never stop at one but equally I do feel the guilt of consuming so many of these deep fried snack which is where the idea of samosa pie came around. Filo pastry is quite light and layering these delicate pastry  sheets between the vegetable samosa filling creates a wonderful dish. Why not serve it for lunch, dinner or to your guests who will be charmed by this easy to make recipe. So what you waiting for? Go on don’t hold back and have fun making this samosa pie.

Filo Pastry Vegetable Samosa Pie

Preparation time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking time: 60-70 minutes
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients for Samosa Spice mix

1 Tsp Cardamom seeds
15 Cloves
5 1″ Cinnamon sticks broken into smaller pieces
1/2 Tsp Coarse black pepper or 8-10 peppercorns
1 Tsp Coriander seeds
1 Tsp Cumin seeds
3 Bay leaves
1/4 Tsp ground nutmeg

Ingredients:

300g Carrots peeled and cubed
500g Potatoes peeled and cubed
250g Sweetcorn
2 Medium Onions chopped
3 Tbsp oil
1 Tsp Mustard seeds
1 Tsp Cumin seeds
1 Tsp sugar
1-2 Tsp samosa spice mix or to taste
1/2 Tsp ground turmeric
30ml Water
Salt to taste
Lemon juice to taste
1 Pack Filo Pastry
Frylight cooking spray
3 Tbsp fresh chopped coriander

Method:
1. In a pan, on medium heat roast the spice mix for 4-5 minutes. In a grinder grind spices into a fine powder and set aside.
2. Bring a pan of water to a boil, add the carrots, potatoes and sweetcorn and cook for approx 15-18 minutes the carrots and potatoes should be cooked but firm. Drain the vegetables and leave aside.
3. In a wide pot, heat oil, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, once they crackle add the onions and fry for about 4-5 minutes until soft.
4. Add turmeric, samosa spice mix and salt, stir and cook for 1-2 minutes, add the vegetables, water, lemon juice per taste and fresh coriander. Stir the mixture until well combined, you can now taste the mixture and add more spice mix should you wish. Stir in the chopped Coriander.When making samosa filling I tend to go by taste rather than quantities.
5.Pre heat the oven to 200 degree C or 180 for fan assisted.
6. Grease a pie dish with cooking spray, unravel filo pastry sheets, cover the bottom of the pie dish with 4 layers of filo pastry, grease each sheet with cooking spray. The bottom 4 layers of sheets should over hang the dish.

7. Spread a layer of vegetable filling, add another 3 layers of filo greasing each layer with cooking spray.
8. Carry on till the dish is filled or until your pastry/filling has finished.
9. Once layers complete, gather all the over hanging layers into the middle of the dish, ensuring the top layer of vegetables is covered. Spray cooking oil over the top layer.
10. Bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes until pastry is golden brown.

Enjoy a slice of this pie hot out of the oven to savour the crispness of golden pastry and flavour’s of aromatic spices.