Triple Layer Moussaka
Hey everyone!
One of my mum’s favourite meals that I make is a moussaka and I have to say, it is such a comforting food for the winter. You can eat it warm or cold, and it’s a lot of layers but easy ones. You can substitute bits for things you like, maybe courgettes or chickpeas, anything! It’s too easy.
Ingredients
Tinned Tomatoes
White Onion
Oregano
Stock
White Wine Vinegar
Sweet Potatoes
Aubergine
Pink Salt
Pepper
Precooked Black Lentils
White Flour
Vegan Cream (Alpro)
Vegan Cheddar
Nutritional Yeast
Breadcrumbs
So the first thing you want to do is prep the aubergine, slice into really chunky rounds and sprinkle both sides with pink salt. Leave for at least 20 minutes but this will remove the bitter taste and prepare them more. Now I have always been confused why there is not a step next in all the recipes I’ve looked at, because I think aubergine, when not cooked properly, is the worst food ever when it’s just lightly fried is the best food. It’s unnecessary but I love it. Next chop up some sweet potatoes into chunks, again boil them through for about twenty minutes. These are your first two layers.
So next, you have to start by creating a simple tomato sauce with some basic white onions. Cook them out and then combine with some tinned tomatoes. Then sprinkle dried oregano and a drizzle of olive oil, add some stock of your choice that’s vegan and some tomato puree. Keep stirring until the liquid is reduced and you have enough to coat one layer of the chosen dish.
When the tomato is reduced down so that the flavours are super intense, then you’re good to go. The sweet potatoes should be firm enough that they would not be able to make a mash, but soft enough so that when they cook you don’t bite into a slice and there’s a part that’s total. They’re the easiest parts done, should take about twenty minutes of watching.
So prepare some pre-cooked lentils, if you want to be super fancy you can boil these from dry or whatever, but they’re easier to buy as they are because sometimes they have a lot of flavour mixed with them. It depends, all these recipes are meant to be super duper easy and not for the chefs but the people wanting to do easy vegan food. So precooked packages are accessible in every supermarket. You throw in the aubergine, throw in the lentils and then the tomatoes.
So to make the cream sauce to pop on top, it’s basically a slight variation of what I’ve shown you before with vegan cheese sauces, this one is just flour and oil. Two tbsp of each into a pan, mix until they form a dough. Add cream, it makes a fluffier texture. When it starts to thicken again start to add water and stir until smooth, add some mild cheddar flavoured vegan cheese, I like the Sheese variation and some nutritional yeast. You can add pepper if you like.
There you go! Add the cream sauce and then the breadcrumbs. Cook for about 45 minutes on 180 c, now everything is assembled and watch the top, the cream sauce can be mixed into more of a thinner consistency with milk instead of cream and it can burn a little, it’s up to you! I think it tastes more reminiscent of the real thing if you do it like this and is more fluffier as if you’d added an egg.
It’s super yummy when cool too so let me know if you’d try it at home in the comments below.
