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Christmas is almost here! If you’ve stumbled across this recipe, perhaps you’re looking for inspiration for the best appetizer for your guests at your holiday dinner. I understand, sometimes you just want a switch-up!
I know that appetizers sure can be a cumbersome course when preparing a holiday menu. Personally, my favorite course to prepare is a main dish, and appetizers are meh. Yes, they’re so delicious and it’s worth the effort to make them, but if you’re making a three-, four-, or five-course meal, you need to be honest with yourself and be realistic. Not every course needs to have hours spent on it! If you really want to focus on your main dish but still put your heart into appetizers, then look no further!
This Spinach Cream Cheese Samosa recipe has the goodness of home cooking with the convenience of using frozen phyllo dough!! If you know me, I love my samosas! My favorite samosa is the classic North Indian Potato Samosas, but I also really enjoy my Paneer Jalfrezi Samosas and my Chicken Keema Samosas. Whatever your filling, samosas are the ultimate Indian appetizer, but why not add a Christmas flair to them?
When I shared those samosa recipes on my YouTube channel (by the way make sure you subscribe if you’re not already! I love to share the video recipes at the same time as the written recipes, so you have the full picture of the recipe! I find reading alone is a bit abstract, and I love seeing how food is made along with the text!), I was requested to make holiday samosas when Christmas time rolled around.
That was back in the fall, and well, Christmas time has rolled around! At the time of writing this, Christmas is 10 days away! Woohoo! Cooking for your loved ones shouldn’t be a stressful affair. With this Spinach Cream Cheese Samosa recipe, you can make an amazing appetizer in no time with minimal ingredients and steps! These are absolutely delicious and don’t require loads of prep work or hands on time. You’ll see how simple they are to make and the results are amazing! They’ll become a new go-to appetizer when you’re in a hurry or if you just want to eat a delicious snack on a weekend night!
If you check out the video, you’ll see I’ve also shared two other holiday samosa recipes: Leftover Mashed Potatoes and Jalapeño Corn & Cheddar. Be sure to check out those recipes, and you can easily make all three samosas for your guests to give them an awesome time!
Ready to get entertaining? Then let’s do it!
Tips & Tricks for Addictive Spinach Cream Cheese Samosas
- Use a sharp knife to cut the pastry
- Use your flour and water glue to ensure everything stays tight!
- Don’t over stuff the pastry
- Fry on medium heat, around 350 F to get a rich golden brown crispy texture and a warm inside
Tools Needed
Ingredients for This Easy Spinach Cream Cheese Samosa Recipe
Let’s review the ingredients we’ll need to make the samosa dough and to make the spinach cream cheese stuffing. Remember, for the full list of ingredients and their measurements, be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD! You can print the card to save it for later!
For the Spinach Cream Cheese Filling
For the Samosas
- Phyllo pastry
- Water
- All-purpose flour
- Butter, melted as needed
- Peanut oil, for frying
How to Make the Best Spinach Cream Cheese Samosa Recipe
For the Filling
- Boil a pot of water and once at a rolling boil, add spinach and cook until it starts to wilt. In the meanwhile, prepare an ice water bath to blanch the spinach.
- Once cooked, transfer spinach to the ice water bath. Drain after 3-5 minutes.
- In a bowl, combine cream cheese, spinach, parmesan, salt and pepper and mix well to combine.
For the Glue
- Whisk together 1/4 Cup of flour and water as needed to make a thick paste.
To Prepare the Samosas
- Separate the phyllo sheet so that you have 2 thin sheets, a bottom layer and a top layer. Cover the top sheet with a damp kitchen/paper towel. Brush the bottom sheet with butter and then cover with the top sheet.
- Cut the sheets with a sharp knife to 2.5-3 inch thick strips.
- Working with one strip at a time place a tablespoon of spinach filling on the bottom of the strip.
- Fold to form a triangle and gently press to spread the stuffing. Then, fold again to layer and form another triangle until you are at the top.
- Seal the pastry with 1/4 tsp or so of the flour and water glue and repeat the same for the remaining portions
To Cook the Samosas
- To bake, preheat oven to 425 F and brush the tops of the samosas with butter. Bake for 12-17 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.
- To fry, preheat oil to around 350 F and fry for 5-7 minutes or until crisp golden brown.
- Enjoy hot!
Serving Suggestions
The ultimate pairing with any samosa is a chutney of course! My favorite chutney to enjoy is Cilantro-Mint Chutney, but a Sweet & Tangy Tamarind Chutney would also go very well with these! You could also dip your spinach cheese samosas in ketchup, which I love to do! Hot sauces and sour cream would nicely complement these fusion samosas too. If you’re looking for the perfect drink to go with your samosas, then I recommend a cool and sweet Mango Lassi! It’s so quick to make, so you can easily make a big batch to serve all of your guests! Yes, this will be fine even in the winter!
Can I make my own samosa dough?▼
If you feel like going the extra mile then by all means go for it! I have plenty of samosa recipes where I make my dough from scratch! This Spinach and Cheese Samosa recipe uses phyllo dough because I wanted to present a quick and convenient solution while still producing a tasty appetizer! I’ve seen lots of samosa recipes online using phyllo dough, and I have never tried it until now,
If you want to make your own samosa dough, check out my Aloo Samosa recipe!
Can I bake these Cheese and Spinach samosas?▼
Of course you can! If you go to the bottom of this post to see the video tutorial, you’ll see that I’m both baking and frying the samosas. You can choose whichever method you feel is best for you, or make half baked and half fried. You’re in control!
To bake, preheat oven to 425 F and brush the tops of the samosas with butter. Bake for 12-17 minutes or until crisp golden brown.
Can I make cream cheese spinach samosas ahead of time?▼
Of course you can! The spinach cream cheese mixture can easily be made ahead of time and stores well in the refrigerator. You could make that and thaw your phyllo dough a few hours before you’re going to cook the samosas. Then, you can then fill your samosas and fry them right on the spot. Otherwise, if you want to get the entire cooking process out of the way, you can reheat them in the oven.
Storing Leftover Cheese Samosas
I don’t know how there could be leftovers, but if there are then no worries! Store any leftover samosas in an airtight container in the fridge. They will stay fresh in the fridge for 3-4 days. You could also freeze your samosas in a plastic bag, and they can be frozen for up to 3 months.
As for freezing, I wouldn’t recommend you freeze these Spinach and Cheese Samosas because the phyllo pastry won’t thaw properly. Since the phyllo pastry is already frozen, you cannot refreeze it. The texture of the pastry is very thin and flaky, so condensation from thawing will turn your samosa to mush. Furthermore, the filling probably won’t maintain its texture and flavor after it is thawed.
How to Reheat Spinach and Cheese Samosas▼
To reheat your Spinach and Cheese Samosas, you could reheat in the microwave for about 30 seconds to a minute, depending on how strong your microwave is. Simply reheat until the outside and inside are warm.
To keep the outside of the samosa nice and crispy, the best methods would be to air fry or reheat in the oven! To reheat in the air fryer, heat for about 2-3 minutes at 350 F. To reheat in the oven, also set your oven to 350 F and heat for about 5 to 10 minutes.
In my opinion, the air fryer would definitely be the best method because there’s no preheating, it’s convenient, and your samosas will be crispy outside!
More Tasty Appetizers!
If you loved this Spinach and Cheese Samosa recipe, you’re sure to love these other awesome appetizer recipes!
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