Name: Samosa Dipping Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Pakistani
Ingredients: 70ml (1/4 cup) rice vinegar; 70ml (1/4 cup) water; 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder; 1/2 tsp ground cumin; 1/2 tsp ground coriander; 1/2 tsp amchoor (dried mango powder; 1/2 tsp chaat masala; 1/4 tsp dried ginger; 1/2 tsp mint sauce; 2 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 4 generous tbsp jaggery or light brown sugar; 1/4 tsp red food colouring powder (more or less to preference and optional); 1 clove garlic, minced (optional)

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This is it! The samosa dipping sauce everyone loves and wants to make at home!

There are many dipping sauces for samosas. I have quite a few here on the blog. But this red samosa dipping sauce is everyone’s favourite.

The sauce is a delicious combination of sweet, sour, savoury and spicy. If there is one samosa dipping sauce recipe you need to know, it’s this one!

About this recipe.

This is a Pakistani samosa dipping sauce. You will see it at Bangladeshi and Indian restaurants too but it is Pakistani in origin.

I shop a lot at a couple of local Pakistani grocers and they always give me some of this sauce when I purchase their homemade samosas. I asked for the recipe and they wrote it down for me. Of course their version was to make a large batch but I have reduced that down for the home cook. You’re going to love this!

I made their recipe at home and it tasted exactly like the original. Then a thinned it some with more water and vinegar and also added chopped garlic which was also very good and authentic tasting.

What makes this samosa dipping sauce so popular?

It is the combination of sweet, sour, savoury and spicy flavours that make this the perfect dip for samosas and many other things such as onion bhajis and poppadoms.

You should use this recipe as a guide though. All of the ingredients are there but have a play with them so that you get the perfect flavour for your own personal taste preferences?

How do you adjust the flavour?

You need to try it just before taking it off the heat. There are four flavours that you can adjust.

Sourness: You can make this samosa sauce more sour by adding a drop more vinegar or even a little more mint sauce. If you fine it too sour, add a drop more water.
Savouriness: The savoury flavour comes from the chaat masala. You can add more of that or season with sea salt to taste.
Sweetness: You get a hint of sweetness from the tomato paste but the sweetness is mainly from the jaggery. Feel free to add more.
Spiciness: I use more chilli powder than suggested in this recipe. I like my samosa dipping sauce spicy. You might like that too and if you do, add a little more chilli powder.

Adjusting these key flavours will make the samosa dipping sauce perfect for you. You might also like to add more of the other ingredients. Be careful with the dried ginger though. It can quickly overpower the dip.

How do you serve this samosa dipping sauce?

This sauce is perfect on its own with samosas. You might like to go all out though and bring some more flavours to the table.

If so, try a few of my raita recipes or chutneys.

Make this samosa dipping sauce your own.

Samosa dipping sauce like this can of course vary from shop to shop and restaurant to restaurant. Sometimes it can be quite thick and sometimes thin. It can be really spicy or sweet with just a touch of chilli powder.

Before starting you might want to think about which version you want to copy. The ingredients are usually the same but you can and should adjust to your own taste preferences.

What is jaggery?

Jaggery is an Indian light or dark brown sugar that you will usually find in chunk for. To use it, you just need to grate or roughly chop it with a sharp knife.

It is, however just sugar and it adds a sweet flavour just like sugar does. If you have trouble finding it, use light brown sugar for this recipe.

Step by step photographs.

Ingredients for the recipe set out on a tabletop.

Get all your ingredients together before starting. Note you might want to add chopped garlic and a little more water and/or vinegar to this.

Frying tomato paste over a medium heat in oil in a frying pan.

Pour two tbsp oil into a pan over a medium heat and stir in the tomato paste.

When the paste turns about one tone darker, stir in the jaggery or light brown sugar.

Melting the jaggery in a pan until thick.

Slowly melt the jaggery or sugar being very careful not to burn it. If you burn it, you’ll know it as it tastes awful. If in doubt add the liquid sooner rather than later.

Adding the water, vinegar and spices to the pan.

Pour in the water, vinegar and spice mixture. If too thick for your liking, you can add a little more water or vinegar and adjust the seasoning.

Once you are happy with the consistency and flavour of the sauce, you can add a little red food colouring if you like. This is optional.

This is how my sauce was originally. Quite thick and I loved it. After his I added a drop more vinegar and water and some minced garlic. Perfection for me. My wife liked it better thick.

Whatever you decide, you are going to love this samosa dip!

Yield: 6