Samosas and Kachoris are the popular snack food that enthralls Indian streets during evenings. These samosas and kachoris are not only consumed in their original form, but also are included in various masalas, spices and gravy to make them the celebrity of chaats and masala chaats. With a variety of different samosas and kachoris differing in its ingredients, regionally popular street side vendors steel the “Chaat show” with ease. While most of us are familiar with the similarity of these Indian tea time snacks, are all of us aware of the difference between a samosa and kachori?

Samosas and kachoris are made of Indian pastry dough and filled with spiced ingredients majorly fried or baked. To quote the basics, samosa is tetrahedral and kachoris are flat roundels. Both samosas and kachoris are made with a dough consisting wheat flour and maida sometimes, sooji (semolina) optionally spiced with jeera or saunf. Both are served with mint chutney and dates and tamarind chutney. In addition, while making samosa or kachori chaat, they are pressed in center to make a hole, and freshly chopped onions, coriander, black salt, chat masala, and yogurt are added.

Samosas

Samosa usually has a sautéed vegetable filling with potatoes, onions, peas, lentils, pasta or spiced noodles. Non Vegetarian Samosas are also made with minced meat filling, popular in North East India and Pakistan. This way, samosas are more versatile since regional ingredients can be used to make the samosa filling. Samosa are deep fried, usually on high heat since the filling within is usually pre-cooked before filling.

Kachori

Kachori is usually filled with fine flour made with baked yellow moong dal or urad dal, besan (gram flour), black pepper and spices. One of its variant, raj kachori/ khasta kachori has pulses. Kachoris are also made with matar, onions and corn. Kachori are usually fried in oil on medium low flame since they need to be very crisp. Also, while rolling the kachoris, using a rolling pin is not recommended since this process might create holes and cause it to absorb too much oil from within.