Samira’s Kitchen Vegetable Samosas Review
Author’s Note: As always, this is not a paid review. I have no affiliation with either Costco or Samira’s Kitchen. Natch.
Go ahead. Seduce my tastebuds.
I previously reviewed the frozen Deep Indian Samosas, which I liked a lot. My local Costco was selling this large box of refrigerated Samira’s Kitchen Vegetable Samosas, so I bought ’em. Here’s what I think:
Two trays are better than one.
I love that you get two individually sealed trays of samosas. There is only one stomach at my house, and having to eat a yuge box of anything all at once is (usually) a bummer.
That being said, I was disappointed that my package had a very short shelf life: only a couple weeks. For how large the package is, that’s much less time than I had hoped. But, gorging myself on samosas is the kind of suffering I would choose.
Size isn’t everything. But it is something.
These are BIG samosas! They’re as big as the palm of my hand. And they smell gloriously of sweet spices, like cinnamon. These are not exactly appetizer size. More like a modest sandwich.
Tender pastry with fluffy vibes.
The pastry isn’t as crisp as the Deep versions. It’s a softer pastry. Tender, and slightly flakey. Fluffy, instead of crunchy. It’s pretty thick, too. Especially where the samosas fold over. It has a pleasant lightly bubbled exterior. Between the generous samosa size and the thick pastry, these are VERY filling.
Sweet and savory spices.
There are whole spices inside. This is amazing, because you bite into them and suddenly your mouth explodes with flavor. The label coyly identifies them as just “spices.” So, I can only guess at what is here. It looks like coriander and maybe ajwain. And probably some chili pepper seeds?
Ah, those flavors! Go ahead. Seduce my tastebuds. There’s not as much heat as Deep samosas, but still a little peppery kick. Although the smell is sweet and cinnamon-y, the actual taste is brasher savory spice, like cumin and fenugreek.
Filling
The filling is a combination of soft potato cubes and whole green peas, plus some carrot chunks. It’s pleasantly semi-mashed, so that it holds a nice shape, but still has parts to chew. For the samosa size, there’s not as much filling-to-pastry ratio as Deep’s. And not as much diversity. No chickpeas or onions.
It comes with tamarind chutney.
Each tray of 8 samosas comes with two small packets of chutney. I was dismayed by how little chutney there was for so many (large!) samosas.
But this is very richly flavored chutney, and a little bit goes a long way. It’s sticky-sweet and thick, with a honey-like consistency. The flavor is tangy and spiced, without any heat. There are visible bits of tamarind blended into the deep brown syrup. There ended up being plenty of the chutney to go around.
Serving the samosas.
Because I am greedy, I ate 5 of these samosas in one sitting. That was … a lot. I really don’t recommend that. But they’re delicious, and addictive. And there’s no Samosa Police to stop me. So. These were a full meal for me, not a side dish.
Cooking the samosas.
I cooked mine on a parchment lined baking sheet. They’re very tidy morsels — no oozing, and nothing fell apart. Although the label provdided three options to heat these, I opted to bake mine in my conventional oven. I thought it was odd that the cooking temp for air fryer (350 degrees for 4 minutes) was the same as the conventional oven temp (350 degrees for 5-7 minutes), but I rolled with it.
There’s no way I would sink to the microwave level, but the label says you can microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. You barbarian.
Unfortunately, conventional baking took twice as long as the instructions said, and the pastries were still soft and a bit flabby when they were done. Me thinks there might have been an error somewhere. I baked the second tray at 400 degrees, which was slightly crisper, but still on the soft side. I think if crispness is a priority, the air fryer would be your best bet.
Ingredients in Samira’s Kitchen Vegetable Samosas
Well, these are somewhat disappointing ingredients. If I’d read these first, I probably wouldn’t have purchased. There is Red #40, preservatives (potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate), and various food additives like sodium acid pyrophosphate, dextrose, and phosphoric acid. Plus peroxide-bleached flour, soybean oil, natural flavor, etc.
I could probably overlook one or two of these, but all together, it’s a lot. Not terribly enthused. But I’m certainly not the Food Police. Or the Samosa Police. Do as you wish. I definitely ate all of mine.
These samosas are made in Canada.
Nutrition Facts
A serving is 1 samosa. This made me laugh, since I devoured 5 at once. Anyway. If you only eat one, it has 190 calories (without the sauce), 6 grams of fat (0.5 grams saturated fat), and 4 grams of protein. You get 27 grams total carbohydrates, of which 0 grams are sugar (whoop!) and 1 gram is fiber. There’s a modest 13% your daily value of sodium per samosa. And no cholesterol.
The sauce adds 10 calories per serving, which is 2 grams total carbohydrates, all of which are sugars.
Price and Servings
A 36.68 ounce box of 16 samosas cost $12 at my local Costco. Since there are an alleged 16 servings per box, each samosa would cost a frugal 75 cents. Since these are BIG samosas, that’s a good price.
Shelf Life
Mine had a very short lifespan, only allowing about 2 weeks to consume after purchase.
Dramatic Conclusion
In conclusion: yum. I love the spiced flavor of these samosas. The pastry is softer than I expected, but I liked the hearty-yet-flakey texture. They either need to be air fried or baked at a higher temperature, to avoid flabbiness. The filling has a pleasant variety of textures, although not as multifaceted as Deep’s samosa filling.
If I didn’t have reservations about the ingredients, I would probably buy these again. As it stands, the Awesome-o-Meter rates these a quizzical “Maybe.”
The End.
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