Eggplant Moussaka

Elena Butuc

This recipe was automatically translated from Romanian. View original here

I used to juggle the idea of trying the moussaka recipe and the eggplant version is the best fit for this season. Next comes the one with potatoes, maybe zucchini. Anyway, the idea is the same and I will definitely not change the basic ingredients.

I'm not a fan of musaca, but now I really had the appetite and after many searches I combined here several ideas that seemed successful to me and in addition how I think it would be even more practical, fast, healthy, and necessarily tasty.

You can prepare the ingredients in stages and in one day combine them as you like.

Be sure to try it, the layers of meat with vegetables and all this covered with white sauce ... it's absolutely delicious!

The ingredients are for a deep and large rectangular tray, approximately 20x30cm.

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Ingredients

Metric US

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Eggplant

2 kg

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Grinded meat

1 kg

●

Tomatoes

2 kg

for sauce and for layers, you can optionally add 1 teaspoon of tomato / pepper paste

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White onion

1 piece

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Egg

2 pieces

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Yellow cheese

100 g

optional, the moussaka will brown well and only with Bechamel sauce on top

●

Sunflower oil

50 ml

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Salt and pepper

1 tsp

to taste

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Bechamel sauce

600 g

recipe in steps

Step by step

Cut the eggplants into slices, about 5-7 mm thick, lightly grease them with an oil brush.

Brown them well on both sides on the grill pan.

If you don't have a grill, you can fry them in oil but they will absorb a lot of it and the moussaka will be a little more oily.

The eggplants are left to cool, or you can make them the day before, or freeze them.

Now we start making the meat composition.

Heat onion in a pan with a little oil.

Then add the minced meat and stir it periodically, to loosen the lumps that form.

Leave the meat in the pan until all the juice evaporates from it and it starts to brown.

Then add 3-4 diced tomatoes (or use canned tomatoes).

Stir periodically and leave on the fire for about 10 minutes.

Finally add 1 teaspoon of pepper / tomato paste, mix well, leave for another 2 minutes on the fire.

Then season with salt and pepper to taste, turn off the heat and set the meat aside until it cools well.

This is what mine looks like at the end, after I turned off the fire.

After the meat has cooled, actually before you start moving the moussaka, add 2 eggs in it and mix well.

Bechamel sauce is prepared according to the recipe on the site, or according to your favorite recipe.

I recommend making it right when you start working on the bite, to be hot when you pour it on top. Thus, it is a bit more liquid and will penetrate better through the layer of meat and vegetables.