Two cuisines have inspired my cooking, first with vegetarianism and now with veganism: Middle Eastern and Indian. I have much more experience with Middle Eastern food since I have not only visited there but have had many Middle Eastern friends who shared recipes with me, have cooked Middle Eastern style foods for many years for my own family and based my Cafe around Middle Eastern foods. Now that I’m cooking more in my own home again, though, I’m trying more Indian foods.
Both traditions have a long history of making foods that are vegetarian or vegan or at least easily converted. I like foods that are not imitations of something else but just . . . well, are what they are, and that happens to be vegetarian or vegan or at least so heavily laden with wonderful treatments of veggies that you aren’t likely to even notice the absence of meat or cheese.
So I’ve long known my philosophy for making vegetarian foods, but I’m in unfamiliar territory with vegan cooking. I’m still looking for good vegan cheese and cheese sauce recipes and good egg substitutes — but as with vegetarian cooking, I’m not sure that substitutes will finally be the right direction. I’ve wanted to find things I like that don’t try to imitate something else.
This week I had a brainstorm! I wanted to make stuffed potatoes — but every recipe I found included butter or cheese or a cheese substitute. I often make a little dish of stewed potatoes for myself with just olive oil and tumeric, salt and pepper. I like the taste and texture of mashed potatoes made with the same ingredients, and I suddenly realized my little dishes of potatoes are somewhat similar to the filling of samosas.
I love samosas! I’m very fortunate to have a small Indian grocery store walking distance from my house, and I stop in whenever I get a chance, hoping they might have fresh samosas. The robust seasoning and substantiality of these fried dumplings make a completely satisfying little meal-on-the-run for me. If I take it home and put together a soup or salad to go with it, I suspect it is a respectable part of a nutritious meal. It occurred to me that the filling for this item doesn’t use any dairy products or eggs, just two of my favorite veggies, potatoes and peas.
So I thought, couldn’t I use a samosa filling in a potato skin? And I started searching for a samosa recipe. I found one at The Tiffin Box and set about to make it with some changes suited to my needs. The seasoning in this recipe is exactly what I was looking for — perfect samosa flavor. I am going to add to the recipe a sauce recipe I found on Pinterest, which I’ll include below, and a fruit salad for a delicious plate in the Cafe.
The great thing about this recipe is that it has the deliciousness and satisfaction of a samosa without the deep fat frying, and it is vegan without all kinds of odd substitutions to approximate something different.
Samosa Double Baked Potato Filling Ingredients
(for every 2 large potatoes)
- Extra virgin olive oil, 2-3 TB
- Cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp.
- Spanish onion, 1 diced finely
- Ginger, 1″ piece chopped finely
- Jalapeno, 1-2 chopped finely (I used half of one, about 1 TB – I love the heat, but I cook for heat sensitive folks)
- Tumeric, 1 tsp.
- Cumin, 2 tsp.
- Amchur (dried mango powder), 1/2 tsp. (I didn’t have this)
- Garam masala, 1/2 tsp.
- Peas, 1/2 cup fresh or frozen
- Lemon, juice of 1/2
- Salt, 1 tsp. – to taste
- Cilantro, large handful chopped
Directions
- Wash, oil and bake the potatoes in a 400 degree oven until fork tender, one to one-and-a-half hours. Remove from oven and cool.
- Prepare all veggies and seasonings.
- Heat the oil in a saute pan, then add the cumin seeds. When seeds sizzle, add the onion, and fry until the onion is soft but not colored.
- Add the ginger, jalapeno, turmeric, ground cumin, amchur and garam masala. Fry together for a couple of minutes, then add the peas, turn off the heat and set aside.
- Cut peeled potatoes in half, or alternatively cut a “lid” off the whole potatoes.
- Scoop the interior of the potatoes into a bowl being careful not to break the shell of the potatoes.
- Break up the potato flesh slightly in the bowl. It should remain somewhat chunky — I like it a little more on the chunky side.
- Put the pan with the onions, seasonings and peas back on the heat and stir in the chunky potato flesh. Add lemon juice and salt. Stir all together while heating until well mixed.
- Refill the potato shells with the pea and potato mixture.
- Store until ready to reheat in the microwave or oven, or serve, garnished with chopped cilantro.
Samosa Sauce Ingredients
- Cilantro, 1 bunch (about 1 cup , packed)
- Extra virgin olive oil, 1 TB
- Ginger, fresh, 1″ chunk
- Garlic, 1 clove
- Salt, to taste
- Vinegar, 2-3 tsp.
Alternate Samosa Sauce Ingredients (if you like it hotter)
- Cilantro, 2-1/2 cups
- Mint, fresh, 1/2 cup
- Spanish Onion, 1/4
- Garlic, 6-8 cloves
- Ginger, 1/4″ peeled
- Jalapeno, 1 in chunks or to taste
- Lemon juice, 2 TB
- Cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp.
- Water, 2-3 TB or as needed to make pesto consistency
- Salt to taste
Directions for both sauces
- Pulse all but the liquid items in a food processor until evenly and finely chopped. Run for a second or two.
- Add liquid items and pulse one or two more times.
This is not necessarily a combination I would have planned, but I happened to be double-checking my Tabbouleh recipe the same day that I made these Samosa Double Baked Potatoes — so I enjoyed them together for dinner:
