Aubergines, minced meat and bechamel sauce. Those are the three basic ingredients to make a traditional moussaka. You can add potatoes. Check out more articles on our site.
Aubergine, minced meat and bechamel sauce. Those are the three basic ingredients to make a traditional moussaka . This dish is similar to lasagna , but instead of pasta sheets it has slices of aubergine .
The general belief is that it is a recipe of Greek origin, but the truth is that the Balkan countries and Turkey also claim its authorship. The similarities between the three countries are more than reasonable, but small touches make the difference.
So that you can decide which one you like the most, I have brought you recipes from all three countries. You can replace the type of minced meat that I put in each recipe with another: veal, pork, mixed, chicken… Or with tofu, if you prefer to do without animal protein. Although tradition says that the moussaka is made with minced lamb meat .
With small modifications so that your children accept it, this recipe is ideal if you want to get them to eat more vegetables . The flavor of the aubergine is hidden with the rest of the ingredients, but its benefits will continue to be on the plate: acid, folic acid, group B and C vitamins, fiber, potassium, calcium, sulphur, iron, etc.
GREEK MOUSSAKA: THE TRADITIONAL RECIPE
Guy:Main dish
The first recipe is the most popular, Greek style. The way of preparing the aubergines, the bechamel sauce and the minced meat is the same for all three recipes. What varies are the ingredients to use.
Ingredients
- 3 eggplants
- 450 grams of minced lamb meat
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 carrot
- 3 ripe tomatoes
- 125 ml of white wine
- 1 egg
- Shall
- Pepper
- Thyme
- For the bechamel:
- 25 grams of flour
- 25 grams of butter (you can substitute it with olive oil)
- 500 ml of milk
- Special grated cheese for gratin
- Fresh mozzarella
- Nutmeg
Preparation methods
- The first thing is to wash and cut the aubergine slices. It is necessary that they release the water so that they do not become bitter, so we will add a little salt to them and place them on absorbent paper.
- When they have released the water, fry them in oil. Another option is to put them in the oven until they are tender. Also, that way it will already be hot when we put the moussaka so that it finishes cooking.
- Meanwhile, you can peel and chop the garlic, carrot and onion, very fine. Pocha in a frying pan.
- Add the minced meat and when it begins to cook, add the previously peeled and chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and thyme. Stir and pour the wine. Let it be done slowly.
- At the same time that the meat is cooking, we prepare the bechamel: melt the butter, add the flour and cook it well while stirring with a whisk and incorporating the milk, little by little and without stopping beating. Add a little salt and nutmeg. We booked.
- Remove the meat from the heat and add a beaten egg. We mix.
- Assemble the moussaka in a greased baking dish: a layer of aubergines, another of meat, and so on.
- Cover with the bechamel and finish with the grated cheese and mozzarella.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 160ºC, with heat up and down. Bake for 5 minutes at 220ºC.
Preparation time: 70 minutes
BULGARIAN-STYLE POTATO MOUSSAKA
Guy:Main dish
We go up to the northeast of Greece to reach Bulgaria and discover a musaka somewhat different from the one we know. In many homes they replace the aubergines with potatoes. In others, they throw both ingredients. I leave that point to your choice.
If you are going to add aubergines, you can prepare them as I have indicated in the previous recipe and add the layers on top of the bed of potatoes.
Ingredients
- 500 grams of minced beef
- 2 potatoes
- Eggplant slices (optional)
- 2 carrots
- 1 onion
- 6 tablespoons of fried tomato
- Olive oil
- Shall
- Black pepper
- sweet paprika
- Chubritsa (in Spain we know this herb as savory, but if you don’t have it you can substitute it with thyme)
- For the sauce:
- 3 medium eggs
- 3 natural yogurts without sugar
- 1 tablespoon of wheat flour
Preparation methods
- The first step is to prepare the aubergines as indicated in the previous recipe.
- We cook the minced meat as we said before. What varies in this case are the spices and herbs. In addition, we will use cold tomato (if you want, you can add natural tomato).
- Meanwhile, peel, wash and cut the potatoes into cubes. We salt them and fry them in a pan with oil.
- In a baking dish, place a bed of potatoes. We alternate a layer of bechamel and another of meat. We bake for 30 minutes.
- Prepare the sauce for the topping. Instead of bechamel, what we will do is beat the eggs, add the yoghurts and the sifted flour. Mix very well to remove the lumps. You will see that we have not added grated cheese, but you can always add it if you want.
- Let’s pour the sauce over the moussaka that we had in the oven and gratin at 225º C for 10 minutes.
Preparation time: 70 minutes
TURKISH MOUSSAKA WITH LAMB
Guy:
We now travel to Turkey to learn how to make a moussaka with lamb meat.
Ingredients
- 400 grams of minced lamb meat
- 2 eggplants
- 1 onion
- 2 large potatoes
- Ketchup
- A tablespoon of baharata (if you can’t get this mixture of Arabic spices, you can use the ones you have at home)
- 125 ml dry red wine
- Shall
- Pepper
- chopped fresh parsley
- Olive oil
- For the bechamel:
- 100 grams of butter
- 5 tablespoons of flour
- 150 grams of grated cheese
- 1 cup of milk
- Lemon juice
- a pinch of sugar
- Shall
- Pepper
Preparation methods
- We cook the eggplants and minced meat. We fry the potatoes. These three steps are the same as in the previous two moussaka recipes.
- We prepare the bechamel with butter, flour and milk, as always. But in this case we are also going to add grated cheese, a little lemon juice and a pinch of sugar, as well as freshly ground black pepper and salt.
- We put the oven to preheat while we assemble the moussaka in a baking dish.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 160ºC, with heat up and down. Bake for 5 minutes at 220ºC.
Preparation time: 40 minutes
