This deep-fried pastry is one of the world’s most popular
It’s a little cheeky to say this dish is from India, because even Indians would admit that the basic idea for the samosa came from elsewhere.
January 12, 2026 — 5:00am
The dish
Samosa, India
Good things happen when you deep-fry pastry … India’s samosa.iStock
Plate up
All around the world it is understood that if you take pastry, wrap it around stuff and then either bake or deep-fry it, good things will happen. Talk to Argentinians about empanadas, Australians about pies, Central Asians about samsas, or Americans about pizza pockets and they will tell you: this is how you eat. And so today we turn our attention to one of the world’s most popular examples of pastry wrapped around stuff: Indian samosas.
A samosa is a small, usually triangle-shaped pastry made with all-purpose flour, which is wrapped around a filling that’s either vegetarian – a mix of spiced potatoes, onions, lentils, peas, spices and chillies – or with spiced, minced meat, and then deep-fried in vegetable oil or ghee. The piping hot package is then served with cooling chutneys and sometimes chai tea, constituting an iconic snack that can now be seen everywhere from restaurants to supermarket freezer sections the world over.
First serve
It’s a little cheeky to say this dish is from India, because even Indians would admit that the basic idea for the samosa came from elsewhere. You might have noted the similarity in the name of samsa, a baked pastry from Central Asia. Go a little further west and you will arrive in the former Persian empire, where a dish called sambusak – a baked, filled pastry – was first mentioned in the 10th century. Mughal settlers took this idea with them across Asia, where it quickly caught on: a variation of the samosa is now popular everywhere from the subcontinent to South East Asia, through the Middle East and into Africa.
Order there
Every state in India has its own variation on samosas – often multiple – and they’re all worth trying. In Mumbai, check out the incredibly popular Gurukripa in Sion (gurukripasion.com).
One more thing
Though the samosa has its origins in the former Persian empire, these snacks are no longer popular in what is now Iran. While “sambuseh” are served occasionally, these Iranian treats more closely resemble South American-style empanadas than the ancient dish.
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