eggplant moussaka

An authentic, delicious recipe for Eggplant Moussaka- with a Tomato lamb sauce, and creamy béchamel sauce. Vegetarian Adaptable! Can be made ahead and baked prior to serving. See notes for VEGAN.

Rustic Eggplant Moussaka

lbs Eggplant

T olive oil

olive oil

onion

garlic, rough chopped

lbs ground lamb, beef

tomato paste

½ Cup white wine

parsley

tsp sugar

cinnamon

tsp kosher salt

cracked pepper

butter oil

flour rice

milk

tsp nutmeg (use fresh grated if possible)

white pepper

grated Parmesan, Pecorino

Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Cut eggplant into ⅓- ¼ inch thick disks (no thinner), sprinkle with a little kosher salt and let sit in a colander or bowl for 20-60 minutes. Eggplant will start to release liquid (making it less bitter)

Rinse well, pat dry and brush each side with olive oil (or use spray oil).

Place on a greased sheet pan and roast in a 400 F oven until golden, about 20-30 minutes. Alternatively, you can grill the eggplant on each side ( getting nice deep grill marks) then wrapping it in foil after for 10-15 minutes, so it steams and cooks through.

While eggplant is roasting -make the tomato- meat sauce

In a large pan, saute diced onion in oil on med-high heat for 3-4 minutes, add garlic, turn heat down to med-low and saute for 8-10 minutes until onions are tender. Add the ground lamb ( or beef or vegetarian meat), turn heat up to medium and brown, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Drain fat if any. Add the rest of the ingredients -diced tomatoes, tomato paste, white wine, fresh chopped parsley, sugar, cinnamon, kosher salt and pepper. Stir and cover and let simmer on med-low heat for 20 minutes.

Make Bechamel Sauce

 In a small pot, heat the butter. Whisk in the flour and let cook for 2-3 minutes on med heat, stirring often. Whisk in the first cup of milk a little at a time. Whisk well, and add the 2nd cup. Stirring constantly bring to a boil, lower heat, and let simmer on low for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add nutmeg, cheese, salt, pepper. Set aside to cool. In a separate bowl, lightly beat an egg, but do not add it just yet.

Assemble

 Divide eggplant slices into three stacks, reserving the best looking largest pieces for the top and bottom layers. The others can be placed in the middle layer which will be concealed.

In a greased 8x 13 inch baking dish, place one layer of eggplant. Add half the meat sauce. Add another layer of eggplant and the remaining meat sauce. Add the third and final layer of eggplant. Whisk in 2-3 tablespoons of bechamel sauce, into the beaten egg (to temper it) then pour this into the bechamel sauce, whisking until nice and smooth. Spread the bechamel over the final eggplant layer.

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese ( optional)  and place in a 350F oven for 50-60 minutes, uncovered until beautifully golden. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

A family favourite that’s absolutely scrumptious! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!!!!

I lost my Greek and Armenian cookbooks from my early years of marriage in a California wildfire, but had made moussaka often enough to do it well enough from memory. It had been nearly a year since I’d last made it, and now at age 79, I don’t trust my memory, so I went online to see what I could find. It seemed all the recipes did not grill (prefer) or oven roast the eggplant. Until I finally saw this, when I was already well into prep with the sauce. Yours is the ticket! There is understanding of the nature of eggplant here. We eat vegetarian often these days, so I may use your suggestion to do it that way next time. Thank you!

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/VDXGBQtK.mp4

An authentic, delicious recipe for Eggplant Moussaka- perfect for entertaining or serving at a special gathering. Can be made ahead. Vegetarian adaptable!

Rustic Moussaka Recipe 

What do you need to make the BEST ever vegan moussaka? I would say layers of roasted eggplant slices, a hearty tomato-based ragú sauce with vegan ground meat, and a creamy white bechamel baked together. We made this recipe with THREE different ground beef alternatives. All came out scrumptious, but the meatiest of them was TVP. 

Meaty Vegan Moussaka (TVP Ground Beef)

+ ½ cup TVP (Soy) (-> What is TVP?)

Veggie broth

Onion (medium)

Garlic

tomatoes

Sieved tomato puree aka Tomato sauce

tsp Tomato paste

tsp Dried parsley

Salt and Pepper to taste

Tbsp Vegan butter

Tbsp Rice flour

Tbsp Corn starch

Dairy-free milk

Nutmeg

Salt

Pepper

Eggplant (medium)

Tbsp Olive oil

vegan cheese

Soak TVP in hot veggie broth for 30 minutes. If they softened, drain the water and squeeze any additional moisture out with your hands. Now, they are ready to be used as &quot;raw ground beef&quot;.

Wash and slice eggplant into 1-inch (1-1,5 cm) thick. Salt them and let them sit at least for 20 minutes. (You can do overnight and don&#39;t worry if you turn brown. The slices will be brown after roasting and baking.)

Initial preparations

We recommend roasting them in a baking tray with a grill rack*. Preheat the oven to 390 Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) and roast them for 15 minutes. When they are ready, leave them to cool on the rack. 

Roasting eggplant slice

Peel and chop the onion and cook it lightly in olive oil until it turns glossy. Add peeled and chopped garlic, and cook for 1-2 minutes. 

Add the pre-soaked and squeezed TVP and stir it a couple of times. 

Finally, add chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and seasoning (parsley, salt, and pepper) and cook for 5 minutes.

Making vegan ground beef ragu

Heat frying pan on medium/low heat, and melt vegan butter.

Take the heat to low and add rice flour. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes until the &quot;batter&quot; is boiling up.

In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup of milk and corn starch. Add it to the pan and stir until combined.

Add the next 1/2 cup of milk and stir until combined. You need to go in small batches to make sure you get a smooth sauce. Go until you run out of milk. (Troubleshooting tips in the Notes section below.)

When the sauce has thickened, add salt, nutmeg, and pepper. Stir to combine.

Making vegan bechamel sauce

To ensure that the eggplant slices do not stick to the bottom, we grease the bottom of our 9 x 7 x 3 inch (23 x 18 x 8 cm) oven-safe glass dish with vegan butter.

The first layer is roasted eggplant slices (not overlapping). Then cover it with whole tomato ragu. Then add the remaining roasted eggplant slices. Top it with vegan white sauce generously. Optionally, add grated vegan cheese.

Preheat the oven to 390 Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) and bake it for 15 minutes.

Layering and baking moussaka

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/YQgmcNpy.mp4

What do you need to make the BEST ever Vegan Moussaka? I would say layers of roasted eggplant slices, a hearty tomato-based mince ragú sauce, and a creamy white bechamel baked together. We made this recipe with THREE different ground beef alternatives. All came out scrumptious.

Vegan Moussaka with 3 Vegan Mince Alternatives

Top 2 eggplant moussaka recipes from across the web

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Rustic Eggplant Moussaka

Meaty Vegan Moussaka (TVP Ground Be...

Top 2 eggplant moussaka recipes from across the web

The most viewed eggplant moussaka recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

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Rustic Eggplant Moussaka

Meaty Vegan Moussaka (TVP Ground Be...

The most viewed eggplant moussaka recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine