Vegetarian Moussaka

I've been overrun with eggplant lately and I'm never quite sure what to do with them.

I roasted them with evoo, s&p, and garlic cloves once and that was pretty good, but you can only do that so often. I tried baba ghanouj a few weeks ago and HATED IT (although, I never really gave it a fair shake because I didn't have tahini at the time so I used a recipe that replaced tahini with something that I can't remember).

This time, I left it up to friends and family to suggest a way to use this over abundance. The most suggested dish was moussaka. Now, although I really always try very hard to research traditional recipes and follow them as closely as possible, I wanted this dish to be a vegetarian stand-by. My rainy-day veggie recipe, if you will. I saved 3 different moussaka recipes, substituted things I wanted, and combined all three for the recipe I offer below.

Ingredients: 2 eggplant, olive oil, s&p, 16oz can diced tomato, 1/2 onion, 1/2 bulb garlic, 12oz pkg Morningstar griller crumbles, 4 carrots, Greek seasoning, dash red pepper flakes, dash cinnamon, dash nutmeg, 3/4 c red wine, 1 c skim milk, 1/2 c shredded mozzarella, 3/4 cup chopped or crumbled feta, 1/2 c shredded part cheese, 1 lemon, 1 bunch flat leaf parsley.

Basically, moussaka has three distinct components: eggplant, tomato/meat, bechemel sauce.

Eggplant: First, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. I sliced 2 different kinds of eggplant in about 1/2 in rounds, covered in olive oil and s&p and roasted for about 10-15 minutes. At the same time, I cut the top off of a half bulb of garlic and threw that in there too (lately, I tend to enjoy roasted garlic in things rather than sautéed).

Tomato/meat sauce: I sautéed some Morningstar griller crumbles (one 12oz pkg) in some evoo for a few minutes, then added about a half an onion and about 4 carrots from our garden (I say about four because I wasn't sure if they were ready yet, so I pulled them out, only to find that they were not completely ready. Oops). I added some red peeper flakes, fresh ground black pepper, a bit of cinnamon & nutmeg, and a bunch of Greek seasoning I got at GR Greek-fest (mostly salt, oregano, thyme- I think, and maybe some other stuff). I sautéed all that together for a few minutes until the onions started getting soft. Then I added a 16oz can of diced tomatoes, with all the juices, and a good splash of red wine. At this point, I took the eggplant out of the oven and chopped up the roasted garlic and threw that in the tomato/"meat" mixture. I also turned the heat down to 350. Sautéed for a few minutes until the liquid reduced by about half. During this time, I started the bechemel sauce.

Bechemel: Being (semi-)health conscious lately (only when I remember, actually), I decided to use a recipe containing only skim milk and flour for the bechemel (instead of the typical butter, flour, milk routine). I brought 1 cup of milk to a gentle boil in a small sauce pan. I added small spoonfuls of flour until it became thicker, whisking vigorously the entire time. I think I probably added about 1.5 tablespoons. Then, I turned the heat to low and added a small handful of shredded mozzarella cheese and two handfuls of crumbled feta cheese. Whisked again until all the cheese had melted.

Assembly: I took a small amount of the tomato/"meat" mixture and placed it on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. I took half of the roasted eggplant and laid it out over the mixture. Then, another later of tomato/"meat" and then the other half of the eggplant. I finished with the remaining tomato/"meat" mixture and then lured the bechemel over the whole top. Last, I grated some fresh part cheese on top. I baked, covered, at 350 for 30 mins, then took the tinfoil off and baked uncovered for another 30 mins.

Before putting in oven:

After the oven:

After cutting a piece out, I squeezed lemon juice and sprinkled some fresh chopped parsley over the top. This one I can say is so amazing, I can't wait until this pan is gone so I can make another batch!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy