Baked Turkey Samosas with Chutney-Yogurt Dipping Sauce

Back in April I posted this recipe for Samosa Lettuce Wraps--basically the ingredients of an Indian Samosa with ground turkey added and served wrapped inside lettuce leaves instead of fried pastry. I love the flavors of curry and spices in a samosa but I don't like the fried part so lettuce wrappers was one way to cut out the frying. The other day I was thinking about some baked wonton chips I made and then I saw Guy Fieri making ravioli out of wontons so I decided to make the samosa recipe again, this time baking it in wonton wrappers. You could just dip them in Chutney but I thought a Chutney-Yogurt Dip would be nice.

Baked Turkey Samosas

Makes about 24 samosas

2 medium waxy potatoes (about 1 cup when diced)

2 Tbsp olive or canola oil

1 small onion, finely diced

2 gloves garlic

2 Tbsp curry powder

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 lb ground turkey breast

3/4 cup frozen green peas

1 Tbsp Nigella seeds* (optional)

1 package wonton wrappers

small bowl of water for wetting wonton wrappers

Chutney-Yogurt Dip (recipe below)
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Either boil potatoes until tender (10-15 minutes), let cool slightly peel and crush into small lumps with your hands or peel and dice raw potato into small cubes and cook in microwave about 5-6 minutes until tender. Set potatoes aside. Heat oil in a medium non-stick pan and saute onion about 5 minutes, add garlic, curry powder, cumin, turmeric and cayenne and mix with onion. Add ground turkey, mix into onion, spice mixture and cook turkey until lightly brown and done through. Mix in potatoes and frozen peas and cook mixture about 5 minutes until heated through. Add in Nigella seeds.

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To make samosas

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray two pans or cookie sheets with cooking spray. Lay a wonton wrapper in front of you so that it forms a diamond shape. Put about a tablespoon of the filling in the center of the wrapper, leaving plenty of room around the edges.

Wet the edges of the wrapper with the water. Fold the top half of the wrapper over the filling, and press the edges to seal. Place stuffed wonton on cookie sheet. Continue filling the wontons. Be sure to keep both the wonton wrappers and the filled wonton covered with a damp cloth or paper towel to prevent drying out. (I find that laying a dry paper towel over the extra wrappers and a wet paper towel over that is effective at keeping them moist but not "mushy") Once all wrappers are filled, bake in oven until lightly browned (about 12-15 minutes)

Notes: *Nigella seeds, if you aren't familiar, are black seeds that are frequently used in Indian and Middle Eastern dishes. The seeds taste like oregano and have a bitterness to them like mustard-seeds. You can omit them or substitute black mustard seeds.

Chutney-Yogurt Dip

1/2 cup yogurt (use Greek or strained regular yogurt)

1/2 cup chutney of your choice (I used Patak's Major Grey's Chutney)
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Place the chutney in your food processor or blender and puree (enough to break down the large bits of "stuff" in there). Mix together chutney and yogurt. Chill about 1 hour before serving.

Results: OK, it's not fried pastry, but it is chewy and good and much healthier. The sweet tang of the chutney-yogurt dip is great with the samosas. You could pull out the turkey on this one and do just the potatoes and peas for a vegetarian version. The recipe makes more samosa filling than you need for a 24 pack of wonton wrappers but the leftover filling is good on top of rice or in a lettuce wrap.