Mauritian Samosas: The Recipe, the Pastry and the Filling
Mauritian samosas: the potato and pea filling, the pastry and the folding, compared across three published recipes.
A Mauritian samosa is a small triangle of thin pastry filled with mashed potato, peas and spices, then fried until golden. Below is a recipe for 30 small samosas, how to fold the triangle, and what changes from one published recipe to the next: homemade pastry or ready-made sheets, fresh herbs or ground spices.
What goes into a samosa in Mauritius
The most common filling is vegetarian: boiled, mashed potatoes, peas, onion and green chilli. One English-language recipe says the filling is often potato and peas, sometimes meat. None of the sources gives the dish’s origin in Mauritius, and nothing is claimed here about its history.
Samosas are eaten hot as a snack, with a fresh coriander chutney or a chilli sauce. For another street-food classic, see the dholl puri recipe.
The recipe: potato and pea samosas
This version follows a blogger’s recipe, which presents it as Mauritian style: a filling lifted with coriander, mint and lemon, wrapped in spring roll pastry sheets. It makes 30 small samosas, from 10 sheets cut into 3 strips each.
Ingredients
- 10 spring roll pastry sheets, thawed and kept under a damp cloth
- 3 large potatoes, boiled and roughly mashed
- 135 g frozen peas, boiled and drained
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 green chillies, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander and 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
- the juice of 1 lemon
- salt
- vegetable oil for deep frying
Method
- In a large bowl, mix the potatoes, peas, onion, chillies, spices, herbs and lemon juice. Taste and adjust the salt.
- Cut each sheet lengthwise into 3 strips.
- Put about a tablespoon of filling at one end of a strip.
- Fold the strip diagonally over the filling, then keep folding it over itself to make a triangle. Dampen your fingertips to seal the last fold.
- Heat the oil. Fry the samosas in small batches until golden, lowering the heat as you go so they don’t burn.
- Serve hot, with a fresh coriander chutney or a chilli sauce.
Homemade pastry
Ready-made sheets are quicker. For homemade pastry, another Mauritian samosa recipe, serving 4, uses 2 cups of flour, half a teaspoon of salt, a quarter cup of vegetable oil and about half a cup of water, added gradually. You rub the flour, salt and oil together until crumbly, add the water to make a smooth dough, then cover it and rest it for 30 minutes.
That recipe folds differently: divide the dough into small balls, roll each into a thin circle, cut the circle in half, and shape one half into a cone. You seal the edge with water, fill the cone and close the top. The recipe gives about 60 minutes in all.
What changes from one recipe to the next
Two published Mauritian recipes share the same base of potato, peas, onion and chilli, but not the same spices or pastry. A French recipe for samosas, presented as Indian rather than Mauritian, serves here as a point of comparison for the cooking method.
| Recipe | Wrapper | Filling | Cooking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recipe blog (“Mauritian style”) | spring roll pastry sheets, 3 strips per sheet | 3 potatoes, 135 g peas, ground coriander and cumin, fresh coriander, mint, lemon | deep frying |
| Fun Times Magazine | homemade dough (flour, oil, water), cone | 2 potatoes, peas, cumin seeds, ground coriander, garam masala | deep frying |
| French blog (“Indian” menu) | brick pastry sheets cut in half | potatoes, peas, carrot, masala, turmeric, parsley | oven at 180 °C, about 5 minutes, with melted butter |
The Fun Times Magazine recipe fries the onion in a little oil before adding the cumin seeds, chillies and spices, then the potatoes and peas; the filling cools before the samosas are filled. The first recipe has no cooking step for the filling: it simply mixes the ingredients, fresh herbs and lemon included, in a bowl. The French recipe fries the masala and carrot before adding the cooked potatoes and peas.
The third recipe, which does not claim to be Mauritian, bakes its samosas instead of frying them. That gives a lighter result, but neither Mauritian recipe does it.
Folding and frying
Keep the sheets under a damp cloth while you work, as the recipe says. The triangle is sealed with a little water on your fingertips. The filling is about a tablespoon per strip.
Fry in small batches, so the oil doesn’t cool down, until golden. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.
What to serve them with
Both Mauritian recipes serve them hot; one of them adds a fresh coriander chutney or a chilli sauce. For other island dishes to put alongside, the page on Mauritian cuisine gives an overview.
Sources and checks
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