Easy moussaka. Feast your eyes on this classic dish featuring layers of eggplants (aubergines), potatoes, meat sauce, cheese and bechamel sauce. While the spices add a nice, delicious touch, the herbs add a beautiful pop of color and flavor. Guaranteed to be a family favorite!
Lasagna and moussaka – what’s the difference? Fundamentally, both have layers of deliciousness. While lasagna has layers of pasta, moussaka brings in cooked veggies like eggplants to add more flavor. The fact is that they are indistinguishable visually.
Without further ado, let’s talk about this delicious layered easy moussaka recipe. To be honest, all those delectable layers of vegetables, meat sauce and bechamel sauce are undeniably flavorful. It tastes incredible!
Easy Moussaka Recipe
First, prepare the eggplants and potatoes. With eggplants or aubergines, you will need to slice them thinly and sprinkle generously with salt. That way, all the liquid with that bitter taste will ooze out and they will taste incredibly delicious. After 20 minutes, rinse them in cold running water, pat dry and cook.
Now, you can cook the veggies three ways – shallow fry, bake or grill. Make sure you drizzle the veggies with a little oil before you bake or grill them. Honestly, I prefer to bake these veggies as shallow frying is time consuming.
Next, the meat sauce, just like the lasagna meat sauce. We’ll add in a few spices like cinnamon and nutmeg to make this easy moussaka more flavorful. Even though I have used lamb mince in this recipe, feel free to replace it with minced beef. The meat mince is cooked in a tomato based sauce flavored with spices and herbs. Trust me, it’s absolutely delicious!
The bechamel sauce forms the top layer of this moussaka. And of course, grated cheese. To make the sauce, you will need to cook flour in butter and then add in very hot milk to make thick sauce. Incredibly silky smooth bechamel sauce to cover all the delectable layers.
Finally, assemble. Arrange all the layers in a baking pan. You will also need grated cheese and breadcrumbs. This goes into oven to turn golden and lightly brown with beautiful layers of deliciousness.
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Yield: 6
Easy Moussaka | Video
Easy moussaka recipe with layers of veggies and meat sauce - delicious in every bite!
Prep Time
45 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Total Time
1 hour 45 minutes
Ingredients
Cook vegetables:
- 6 eggplants or aubergines, ends removed and cut into 1 cm -thick slices
- 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm - thick slices
- Oil, to fry or bake eggplants and potatoes
- Salt
Meat sauce:
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 500 g minced (ground) lamb
- 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
- 1 can (400 g) diced tomatoes or 4 large tomatoes chopped
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (cinnamon powder)
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- A pinch of nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- ¼ cup red wine (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Bechamel sauce:
- 2 tablespoons butter, unsalted
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 and ½ cups hot milk
- 2 eggs
- Salt to taste
To assemble:
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs
- 1 cup grated parmesan or kefalograviera cheese (I used parmesan)
Instructions
Cook vegetables:
- Sprinkle the eggplant (aubergine) slices with a generous amount of salt. Set aside for 20 minutes. Rinse under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towel.
- You can either bake or fry the eggplants and potatoes. To fry, heat 3 tablespoons oil in a large frying pan. Fry eggplant slices in batches until both sides are browned. Drain on an absorbent paper towel. Set aside. To bake the vegetables, arrange eggplants and potatoes in two baking trays in a single
layer. Drizzle with oil. Season with salt. Bake at 180 C or 350 F for 20-25 minutes. You can also grill the vegetables if you like. Set aside.
Make meat sauce:
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add minced (ground) lamb. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for 6-8 minutes or until browned. Remove from the pan. Set aside.
- To the same pan, add 1 tablespoon oil. When the oil is hot, add onions and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until onions are soft and translucent.
- Add canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes.
- Add cinnamon, oregano, parsley and nutmeg. Stir to combine. Cook for 4-5 minutes.
- Add browned lamb and red wine (if using). Stir to combine. Simmer for 5 minutes and let the alcohol evaporate. Reduce
heat and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Make bechamel sauce:
- Melt butter in a small heavy-based saucepan over medium-low heat.
- Whisk in flour gradually and continue whisking for 1 minute or until cooked.
- Pour in hot milk gradually to the butter flour mixture, whisking constantly to ensure the mixture is smooth and thick.
- Continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the sauce
has thickened. Season with salt. Remove from heat. Allow to cool slightly. - Break 2 eggs into a large bowl. Add a little bechamel and stir to combine. Add the remaining bechamel sauce and stir. Set aside.
Assemble:
- Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Sprinkle half of breadcrumbs onto the base of 9-inch x 9-inch base (3cm deep) baking dish.
- Top with a layer of cooked potatoes, then half of eggplants (aubergines). Add half of meat sauce and spread evenly.
- Sprinkle with half of grated cheese.
- Add the remaining breadcrumbs, eggplants (aubergines)
and meat sauce. - Pour in bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake
for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown on top. - Allow to cool slightly before cutting into pieces. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Lamb can be substituted with beef if you like
- You can use either red wine or white wine in this recipe. However, it’s optional.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 841Total Fat 25gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 14gCholesterol 93mgSodium 725mgCarbohydrates 142gFiber 28gSugar 34gProtein 24g
The nutritional data is for information purposes only
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