Vegan Moussaka

 

vegetarian_moussaka_recipe

Moussaka is well known traditional Mediterranean main course dish. Those of you, who are not from that part of the world, did not yet visited some of these countries, or are not familiar with the Mediterranean cuisine, I can say that moussaka is one type of layered casserole, and the Greek moussaka is probably the most famous and delicious moussaka throughout the world. If you had a chance to visit this beautiful country, you surely know that there are many types of this dish, and they differ not just from country to country, but from household to household as well. However, most of the moussaka recipes call for eggs, heavy sauce, milk and cheese, etc, so people who pay attention to their diet, usually decides to enjoy in some other kind of Greek food. Also, if they try to make it on their own and start to read versatile recipes for moussaka, they quickly realize that almost all of them require precooking of many ingredients; so although quite tasty, they are a time consuming dishes, and not many of us has time today to prepare one dish entire morning (except if you kindly ask your grandmother :)). Well, the grandmother was the person that introduced me with this dish. I enjoyed it as a kid that hasn’t yet learned to hold knife and fork properly. This grandmothers moussaka was quite rich, it consisted out of ground meat, eggs, sour cream and just a few zucchini and potato slices, so when I grew up, I never made it myself. Instead, I started making my own variations of this dish, with the ingredients that was in season, and I must admit, not so many of them were successful. Well, except for this variation of vegan Greek moussaka, which is quite tasty, and in some way it resembles lasagna. This is also an eggs and diary free dish, it can be made quite quickly, and the smell while its baking is unbelievably flavorful, and I honestly think you will enjoy in it as mush as when tasting it.


First thing you should do in this recipe is to sharpen your cutting knife, because there will be quite chopping and cutting, but that is almost it. This vegan moussaka recipe is quite easy to make, and the only thing that you should do, except a lot of cutting, is to fry the mushrooms – but of course, cut them first as well ;).

 

Vegan Moussaka
 
Ingredients
  • 3 medium sized zucchini
  • 15 bigger new potatoes / or 6 regular potatoes
  • 300 grams button mushrooms
  • 3 spring onions / or one bigger onion
  • 3 tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
  • 7 oz / 200 ml vegan sour cream
  • 8 tablespoons virgin olive oil
  • 5 ½ oz / 150 grams flour
  • about 2 tablespoons salt
  • about ¾ tablespoon black pepper
  • about 2 tablespoons smoked paprika powder
  • pinch or two cayenne pepper
Tools
  • sharp knife
  • cutting board
  • skillet
  • wooden spoon
  • bowls
  • two flat plates
  • one deep plate
  • baking dish
  • aluminum foil
Instructions
  1. Clean and wash the mushrooms under the running water, and put them on a clean cloth to dry. Cut them in half first, and then slice them into thinner pieces. Now, mushroom needs to be fried for just a couple of minutes in one layer, so if you do not have extra large skillet, divide the mushrooms in two or three piles, put the skillet over a medium heat, add two tablespoons of olive oil, and when hot, add mushrooms. Fry them for coupe of minutes, stirring constantly. Transfer them into a bowl and repeat the process with other mushrooms. Take the spring onions, rinse them, cut off the root ends and chop finely, together with the green tops. Add them to the bowl with mushrooms and mix gently.
  2. Now - the potatoes. I hope you purchased some nice local, organic potatoes, which does not have to be peeled. They need just gentle scrub with a brush to remove dirt and a good wash. But, if you purchased it in a supermarket, you should peel the skin off.
  3. Wash and peel the zucchini as well. Take two flat plates and slice the zucchini in one plate, and the potatoes into another. The slices should be pretty thin.
  4. Put the flour into one deep plate, add about ¾ to 1 tablespoon black pepper, 2 tablespoons smoked paprika powder, pinch of cayenne pepper and about 2 tablespoons of salt. Stir in thoroughly. This amount of seasoning is for the people that like mild taste, so if you like a little bit more heat, or salty and bitter flavor, feel free to add few more pinches of cayenne, salt, etc.
  5. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 390°F.
  6. Take your baking dish (rectangular, 9x13 inch / 23 x 34cm casserole dish will be just perfect, but any other baking dish with similar size will do), coat the bottom and sides of dish with the olive oil.
  7. Now, take the plate with flour and the one with cut potatoes, dredge both sides of each potato slice in flour mixture and layer them in the bottom of dish. The potatoes should overlap.
  8. Now take zucchini, dredge them also in flour mixture and make an overlapping layer on top of the potatoes. Take the mushrooms and onions mixture and toss them evenly on top.
  9. Add another layer of dredged potatoes.
  10. Cut finely tomatoes, place them over the potatoes.
  11. Put the sour cream on top and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and mint leaves.
  12. Add one more layer of dredged potatoes and finish with layer of zucchini all dredged in flour. Drizzle the top with two tablespoons of olive oil, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove the foil, put the moussaka back into the oven and bake additional 15 to 20 minutes, until the top turn golden brown.
  13. Now comes the most difficult part: let the moussaka sit at least half an hour before cutting. Serve with some nice fresh salad, enjoy.
 

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