Home Steering Moussaka with minced meat and vegetables technological map. Moussaka with minced meat. Vegetarian moussaka Greek style

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Moussaka with minced meat and vegetables technological map. Moussaka with minced meat. Vegetarian moussaka Greek style

Moussaka(casserole) - traditional eggplant dish in the Balkans and the Middle East. Different countries have their own original recipes. Classic Greek moussaka is an incredibly tasty dish, reminiscent of two types of sauces, but instead of layers of dough, thinly sliced and fried eggplants are placed in it - this is a rather difficult dish to prepare and takes a lot of time. My recipe is a little simpler, but also very tasty.

You will need:

minced meat 400-500 gr
onion 1-2 pcs
5 eggplants (medium)
tomatoes 5 pcs
eggs 6 pcs
sour cream 2-3 tbsp.
cheese 250 gr
dry provencal herbs
ground black pepper
vegetable oil for frying

You will also need a baking dish approximately 38x25 cm with a side height of at least 5 cm.

Advice: You can fry the minced meat and eggplants in advance, for example, in the evening, and bake the moussaka the next day.

Step-by-step photo recipe:

Slice and fry it in oil until soft 5-10 minutes.

Add to onions. Fry the minced meat for 10-15 minutes. Stir to break up any meat lumps. Salt And pepper. Can add 0.5 cups dry wine and wait for it to evaporate.

Cut off the stem of the eggplant and peel it. cut slices 1-1.5 cm thick.

Take a clean frying pan ( or wash the pan after frying the minced meat).Fry the eggplants in vegetable oil on both sides.

When roasting eggplants absorb a lot of oil, so get ready for the fact that you will have to add it all the time. You can reduce the amount of oil absorbed by dredging the eggplants in flour before frying, but it is better to place the fried eggplants in a colander and press lightly to release excess oil.

Grate the cheese on a grater.

Prepare - peel them and cut them into slices. To do this, cut the top of the tomato, place it in a bowl and pour boiling water over it for half a minute. Drain the boiling water, rinse with cold water - now the skin can be easily removed. If the tomato is hard and unripe, keep it in boiling water longer.

Better to cut the tomatoes round slices. Like this.

Fried eggplant place in a baking dish, add some salt, pepper, add dry herbs.

Sprinkle the eggplants.

Now fried minced meat.

Sprinkle.

Last layer - tomatoes, salt, pepper, herbs.
Advice: if you have a deep pan, you can make another layer of fried eggplants - buy more eggplants or choose large fruits.

Sprinkle.

Whisk eggs with sour cream, add a little salt.

You can do this using a blender.

Fill the pan with the whipped mixture.

Bake moussaka in a preheated oven t 200º C 35-40 minutes.

The moussaka is ready and smells delicious.

Juicy, tender, with melted cheese inside - it just melts in your mouth! They will definitely ask you for more!

Bon appetit!

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This Greek dish includes both a meat component and a side dish. It requires no additions and is surprisingly tasty. There are many recipes for Greek moussaka with eggplant, and any option will please the most demanding gourmet.

Moussaka is not a national Greek dish. It has an author, the famous Greek chef Nikos Tselemendis. He was a supporter of not only national, but also European cuisine, so the recipe he invented whimsically combines traditional Greek vegetables and lamb, and exquisite French bechamel.

Finger-licking delicious.

The recipe is only about a hundred years old, but moussaka is enjoyed in all countries. There are many options for preparing it with different ingredients, but it all started with classic Greek moussaka.

This dish cannot be called low-calorie or dietary, but how delicious it is! When preparing, do not spare spices and olive oil.

What is important is that according to the classic recipe, Greek moussaka is prepared only from lamb. Well, as a last resort - from beef.

Of course, you can take pork or chicken, but it won’t be the same.

Ingredients:

4 small eggplants with a total weight of about 700 g;
already twisted minced meat - 0.5 kg;
2 onions;
several ripe tomatoes with a total weight of about 300 g;
hard cheese – 75 g;
dry white wine 150 ml;
olive oil – 2 tbsp. spoons.

Moussaka should be topped with sauce. For it you need to take:

hard cheese – 150 g;
2 chicken eggs;
400 ml milk;
2 tbsp. spoons of flour;
butter – 75 g.

We will season the sauce with a pinch of grated nutmeg, and the minced meat with dry herbs to suit your taste.

How to cook:

If the eggplants are bitter, cut them into rings without peeling them and sprinkle them with salt. In 20 minutes. washed and dried.
Tomatoes are peeled, for which they should first be scalded.
Fry the eggplant rings over high heat, adding oil. It usually takes 1 minute for them to brown.
Sauté the onion, cut into half rings, in oil until it becomes transparent. Add minced meat, knead and fry for 5 minutes. Season with herbs, add wine and simmer until all the liquid evaporates. At the end of stewing, add salt to taste.
Simmer the tomatoes, cut into circles.

Prepare the sauce separately:

fry the flour in butter until golden brown;
dilute with warm milk, adding it in portions and thoroughly kneading until smooth;
heat until sour cream thickens, turn off the heat;
lightly beaten eggs are mixed into the sauce so that they do not curdle;
All that remains is finely grated cheese, add to the sauce, season with nutmeg and salt and mix well.

Next, cover the bottom of a tall baking dish with eggplants (take ½ part), place half the minced meat and cover with half the tomatoes. Lay out the products again in the same sequence, pour in the sauce and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Bake the dish in a hot oven for about half an hour.

The liquid should evaporate completely, but the food should not be allowed to burn.

Before serving, allow the dish to steep for a quarter of an hour.

Cooking option with potatoes

The cooking technology is the same. If you add 300 g of sliced potatoes to the ingredients specified in the previous recipe, the dish will have a different taste.

Potatoes must first be fried until half cooked or baked in the oven for 10 minutes. When forming a dish, it is placed in the first layer. The baking time for Greek moussaka with eggplant and potatoes will have to be extended a little, since potato slices take longer to cook than all the other ingredients.

With the addition of zucchini - step by step

Moussaka with zucchini is easy to prepare; they add a special taste and juiciness to the dish.

With zucchini the dish will be juicier and tastier.

Ingredients:

3 eggplants;
1 zucchini squash;
1 onion;
5 tomatoes;
500 g of already rolled minced lamb or veal;
300 g hard cheese;
4 tbsp. spoons of flour;
2 glasses of milk;
70 g butter;
4 tbsp. spoons of olive oil.

The dish is seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.

How to cook:

Eggplants and zucchini cut into thin slices are sprinkled with salt.
After a quarter of an hour, wipe them of juice and lightly fry with the addition of olive oil.
Peeled tomatoes are chopped, as are onions.
Sauté onions in oil for 3-5 minutes.
Add minced meat to it, mix and bring until half cooked.
Add tomatoes to the semi-finished ingredients, season with spices and mix.
Fry the flour in butter for 3-4 minutes. The mixture should be homogeneous, without lumps.
Dilute it little by little with slightly warmed milk, achieving homogeneity after each serving.
Remove the sauce from the heat, then mix it with half the finely grated cheese.
Divide the zucchini and eggplants into 3 parts, and the minced meat in half.

Next, place a third of the eggplants and zucchini on the bottom of a deep baking dish, then half of the minced meat, which is sprinkled with half of the remaining cheese, again a third of the eggplants and zucchini, the remaining minced meat, cheese, and then the zucchini and eggplants on top. All. Pour the prepared bechamel over the moussaka and bake in a not too hot oven for about 40 minutes.

After baking, the moussaka should cool slightly before serving, so its taste will become brighter and richer, and it will not disintegrate when cut.

Vegetarian moussaka Greek style

This recipe is for those who do not eat meat in any form, but do not deny themselves eggs and milk. The dish is not similar to the classic Greek moussaka with minced meat, although it is prepared using the same technology. But that certainly doesn’t make it any less tasty.

The dish is perfect for a pleasant evening dinner with the family.

Ingredients:

2 medium-sized carrots and onions;
a small celery root weighing 100 g;
5 potatoes;
0.5 kg asparagus green beans;
0.5 cups rice;
4 eggs;
2/3 cup milk;
olive oil as needed.

In this recipe, the pouring sauce is made from a mixture of milk and eggs, but you can also make classic bechamel.

How to cook:

Three carrots and celery on a grater, chop the onion. Fry vegetables until soft.
Boil rice and beans until tender. We cut the last one into pieces.
Three boiled and peeled potatoes on a grater with large holes.
Make the sauce by mixing lightly beaten eggs with milk. You can add your favorite dried herbs to it.
Place the potatoes in a greased baking dish, first, and then the rest of the ingredients in layers.
Pour the sauce over everything and shake the pan so that it saturates each layer.

Vegetarian moussaka bakes in half the time of a traditional dish - only 20 minutes. in a hot oven at 200 degrees.

With eggplant and rice

There is very little rice in this dish, but it is it that absorbs the delicious juice that the meat and vegetables release.

Ingredients:

2 eggplants with a total weight of about 500 g;
100 g rice;
2 pcs. onions and large tomatoes;
a couple of cloves of garlic;
olive or vegetable oil - how much will be needed;
2 tbsp. spoons of flour and butter;
2 glasses of milk;
100 g hard cheese, ideally Parmesan;
500 g minced pork or mixed with beef;
a pinch of grated nutmeg.

Salt and pepper are added to taste.

How to cook:

Peel the eggplants, cut them into lengthwise slices and soak for half an hour in well-salted water. Wash and dry on a napkin.
Fry on both sides until golden brown, but without drying out.
Cook the rice until almost done.
Fry finely chopped onion until golden brown, adding chopped garlic.
After adding the minced meat, fry a little more, add some salt and simmer with the addition of finely chopped tomatoes for 5-7 minutes.
For bechamel, mix flour with butter in a deep frying pan until smooth. You need to fry them for no more than 5 minutes.
Dilute the mixture with warm milk so that the sauce is homogeneous. To do this, you need to constantly stir it.
Season the bechamel with salt and nutmeg.
We “assemble” the moussaka: put rice on the bottom of the mold, which needs to be greased ahead of time, all the minced meat on it, which we then cover with eggplants.

All that remains is to pour bechamel over the moussaka and sprinkle with grated cheese. In a very hot oven, the dish is baked in 25 minutes. Ingredients:

2 small eggplants;
bulb;
2 tbsp. spoons of sour cream, flour;
0.5 kg minced meat;
1 tbsp. a spoonful of tomato paste and butter;
2 eggs;
150 g hard cheese;
clove of garlic.

Spices and salt to taste and desire. In a slow cooker, moussaka is prepared a little differently, but it still turns out very tasty.

How to cook:

Cut the eggplants into circles half a centimeter thick, without peeling them.
Sprinkle with salt and let sit for about half an hour. Wash and dry. In this case, there is no need to fry them.
Chop the garlic and onion, fry with a piece of butter in a multicooker bowl in the “Baking” mode until golden brown.
Add the minced meat, season with salt, pepper and spices, fry for another 20 minutes.
Stir with tomato paste and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Mix cheese, eggs and sour cream, add salt and gradually add flour, achieving homogeneity of the sauce.
Place eggplant slices on the minced meat, pour in the sauce and cook in the “Baking” mode for another third of an hour. We make sure that the “blue” vegetables brown.

A hearty dish for the holiday table - moussaka with minced meat! The best recipes with vegetables and cheese - choose!

Potatoes (boiled) - 650 g
Broccoli - 400 g
Minced meat (mixed or beef) - 350 g
Onion - 1 piece
Tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l.
Butter - 2 tbsp. l.
Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.
Broth (or water) - 250 ml
Oregano (dried) - 0.5 tsp.
Tomato (large) - 1 pc.
Cream - 250 ml
Soft cheese - 50 g
Dutch cheese (or other) - 50 g
Nutmeg (ground)
Black pepper (ground)

Boil the potatoes.

At this time, heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the minced meat in it well (I used beef, but you can use any). Add onion, cut into small cubes, and tomato paste to the minced meat.

Add broth or water, simmer over low heat for 5-10 minutes, add salt and season with oregano.

Divide the broccoli into florets (frozen can be used) and blanch in salted boiling water for approx. 5 minutes. Express.

Cut the tomatoes into slices.

Mash the finished boiled, strained potatoes and add butter, warm milk, puree and set aside 2-3 tbsp. l.

Grease a baking dish with vegetable oil and lay out a layer of 2/3 of the minced meat. On the sides are broccoli florets.

Place tomato slices on top of the minced meat and a layer of mashed potatoes on top.

Place another 1/3 of the minced meat on top. Make walnut-sized balls from the reserved mashed potatoes and place in the center.

Heat the cream and add cream and hard cheeses, let them melt.

Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and herbs.

Pour this sauce over the moussaka casserole.

Bake in an oven preheated to 200*C for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown.

Recipe 2, step by step: moussaka with potatoes and minced meat

Moussaka is a Greek casserole traditionally prepared by adding eggplant and lamb. Well, unfortunately, we can’t always have lamb on hand, but our soul demands that our favorite potatoes be included in the hot dish. Therefore, I suggest you prepare a moussaka dish with potatoes. Surely, this recipe will conquer you and become a regular on the family table, as well as a signature dish on your holiday table.

For filling

Eggplants 4 pieces
Potatoes 1 kilogram
Minced beef 500 grams
Tomatoes 4 pieces
Onion 1 piece
Garlic 1 clove
Bay leaf 2–3 pieces
Dried herbs 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

For filling

Wheat flour 4 tablespoons
Butter 100 grams
Milk 2.5 cups
Egg 1 piece (selected)
Hard cheese 100 grams
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

Peel the potatoes and rinse thoroughly. Using a sharp knife, cut the root vegetable into circles and place thin slices on a paper towel to remove excess moisture.

Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the potatoes until golden brown.

Wash the eggplants well and cut off the tail. Chop the vegetables into thin slices and dry with towels in the same way as potatoes. Then fry the eggplant slices until golden brown. There is no need to cut off the peel.

Rinse the tomatoes with warm water and cut into small cubes. Don't crush them and don't forget to cut out the place where the tail used to be.

Before peeling, cut the onion in half; as practice shows, it is easier to peel the peel off the halves. Chop the clean onion as finely as possible.

Peel the garlic clove and chop it in any way convenient for an hour: rub it, chop it or pass it through a special press.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic and onion along with the minced meat over high heat for 5 minutes, then reduce heat and simmer for another 10 minutes. Don't forget to mix using a special spatula! After the minced meat turns brown and the onion is transparent, add the desired spices and chopped tomatoes to the pan. Simmer for another 15 minutes. All water should be corrected.

While the minced meat is frying, you have time to prepare the filling. Therefore, take a small frying pan and melt the specified amount of butter in it. Fry the flour in oil for 1-2 minutes, stirring all the time. And then gradually add milk, the sauce should have a thick consistency, as soon as it becomes so, remove it from the stove and cool slightly. Then add the egg, seasonings and grate about half of the cheese you have.

Place the potatoes in a dish greased with vegetable oil; they form a crispy base for our casserole; place half of the prepared eggplants on top of the potatoes, and dump half of the minced meat on top; repeat two more layers. Pour the prepared cream cheese sauce over the raw moussaka and place in the oven preheated to 180 degrees for 45 minutes. 10-15 minutes before cooking, sprinkle the casserole with the remaining grated cheese so that it is covered with an appetizing brown crust.

Remove the finished moussaka from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes, then cut into portions and serve.

Serve moussaka with potatoes with sour cream or tomato sauce; you can season it with fresh tomatoes or herbs. Of course, no additional side dish is needed. Bon appetit!

Recipe 3: vegetable flour with minced meat (step-by-step photos)

Minced beef - 600 g.
Eggplants - 600 g.
Tomatoes (red) - 400 g
Potatoes - 600 g.
Dry white (table) wine - 200 ml
Milk - 500 ml
Butter - 50 g.
Onions - 100 g.
Wheat flour - 40 g.
Olive oil - 80 ml
Parsley (dried) - 2 tsp.
Brown sugar - 5 g.
Ground cinnamon - ½ tsp.
Grated nutmeg - ¼ tsp.
Sea salt - 1 tsp.

Let's start with the eggplants, cut them lengthwise into slices about 1 cm thick. Place on a baking sheet, sprinkle each “tongue” with olive oil. Send to already heated to 180 degrees. oven for about half an hour until soft.

Meanwhile, fry the chopped onion in a frying pan until translucent. Then add the minced meat to the onion, mix well and cook until the meat gets rid of its pink tint. Then pour in the wine, stir, reduce the heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes.

Remove the skin from the tomatoes, to do this, make a cross-shaped cut on the front part and pour boiling water over them, that is, blanch them. Cut the peeled tomatoes into small pieces, put them in a blender and puree them,

Then add to the minced meat, season with salt and pepper, cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Sprinkle with spices. If suddenly the meat sauce for the casserole turns out to be sour, add a little sugar. Mix well and remove from heat.

Now take a baking dish and lay out the prepared ingredients in layers: potatoes in the first layer, minced meat in the second, baked eggplants on top and pour bechamel sauce on top.

To prepare it, you need to fry the flour in butter until light golden brown. Pour in the milk in a small stream, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from appearing. Cook until the white sauce thickens, stir constantly, season with salt and nutmeg.

Let cool and pour into the layered casserole. Place the Greek moussaka in the oven (190C) for 35-40 minutes. The prepared casserole can be served either hot or cold; cold moussaka is better cut. Bon appetit!

Recipe 4: Moussaka with minced meat and tomatoes in Greek style

Eggplant – 1 kg
Pepper - 0.5 teaspoon (to taste)
Salt - 1 tbsp. spoon (to taste)
Potatoes - 800 g
Onions - 200 g
Garlic - 2 cloves
Olive oil - 5 tbsp. spoons
Rosemary - 1 teaspoon
Thyme (thyme, Bogorodskaya herb) - 1 teaspoon
Sage - 1 teaspoon
Minced meat - 400 g
Fresh tomatoes - 400 g
or canned tomatoes - 400 g
Tomato paste - 2 tbsp. spoons
Eggs - 3 pcs.
Milk – 125 ml
Cheese - 200 g
Nutmeg - on the tip of a knife (to taste)

How to prepare moussaka with minced meat and vegetables: cut the eggplants into slices, add salt and let stand.

Wash the potatoes, cover with cold water, and boil in their jackets until tender (about 20 minutes).

Peel the onion, wash it, cut it into cubes.

Peel the garlic and chop finely.

Wash the tomatoes and grate them.

Sauté onion and garlic in 1 tbsp. spoon of vegetable oil over medium heat, stirring, 1-2 minutes.

Add minced meat with herbs.

Fry everything over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes.

Add tomatoes, tomato paste, spices and herbs.

Simmer covered over low heat for 20 minutes.

Wash the eggplants, dry and fry in the remaining oil for 5 minutes.

Peel the potatoes and cut into slices.

Turn on the oven. Grease a baking dish with oil and place eggplants in it in layers.

Then minced meat with tomatoes.

The last layer is potatoes.

Grate the cheese on a coarse grater.

Mix eggs with milk and cheese, salt and pepper, add nutmeg.

Pour the resulting mixture over the vegetables and minced meat.

Place the pan in the oven on the middle shelf.

Moussaka with eggplant and minced meat is baked in the oven preheated to 200 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Moussaka with eggplant and potatoes is ready. Bon appetit!

Recipe 5: Greek moussaka with minced meat in the oven

Preparing this dish will take some time and require some skill. But even if you spend your time preparing the moussaka, the result is worth it! This is a large dish that is enough for a small group of guests and is equally delicious hot or cold.

2-3 potatoes;
2 blue eggplants;
300-400 g minced beef;
1 large tomato or 2 tablespoons of tomato paste;
1 sweet bell pepper;
1 onion;
a mixture of herbs and spices for meat;
olive oil;
salt, ground black pepper - to taste;

Bechamel sauce:

50 g butter;
2 tablespoons white flour;
half a liter of milk;
2 eggs;
250 g grated cheese (usually sharp soft cheese is used).

Cut the eggplants into slices about 1 cm thick. Salt the eggplant pieces on each side, place them on a plate and leave them for at least 20 minutes.

Peel the potatoes, cut into slices, salt and fry them in olive oil on both sides.

Place the fried potatoes as the first layer in a baking dish (or on a baking sheet).

Peel and chop the onion. Heat a frying pan with olive oil, add chopped onion and fry over low heat until soft.

Remove the seeds from the bell pepper, chop it finely and add it to the pan with the onions. Stir and cook the vegetables together for about 5 minutes.

Increase the heat under the pan, add the ground beef and fry it along with the vegetables for another 5 minutes.

Add chopped tomato (or 2 tablespoons of tomato paste), salt and ground black pepper, mix everything well.

Simmer the meat with vegetables and tomatoes for about 15 minutes. Finally add the herb and spice mixture. Place the meat and vegetables in the next layer on top of the potatoes in the baking dish.

Drain off the liquid that the salted eggplants have released (you can remove the excess salt with a paper towel if you salted them too generously). Heat a frying pan with olive oil and fry each eggplant slice on both sides.

Place the eggplants on top of the meat and vegetables in a third layer in a moussaka baking dish.

Now you need to prepare the bechamel sauce. To do this, place a saucepan on low heat and melt 50-60 g of butter in it. Add 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir the butter and flour together thoroughly, making sure the heat is low and the flour is not burning.

Start adding milk to the pan, cup by cup, thoroughly stirring it into the butter and flour. Keep the sauce on the heat, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken.

Break the eggs and mix them in a separate bowl. Remove the sauce from the heat and pour in the eggs. Quickly and thoroughly stir the sauce, add salt and stir until smooth.

Pour the prepared sauce over all layers of the prepared dish.

Top with grated cheese. Place the pan in the oven, preheated to 200 degrees. From 45 minutes to an hour (depending on the size of the form).

When finished baking, remove the pan from the oven and leave for 20-30 minutes to allow the dish to cool slightly. Then cut it and serve as a main dish (you can add Tartak sauce). Bon appetit!

Recipe 6: how to cook moussaka with minced meat (step by step)

Greek cuisine is full of the characteristic tastes and smells of true Mediterranean cuisine: feta goat cheese, lamb, olives, eggplant. Peak sensations that induce appetite. Layered casserole with eggplant, minced meat and tomato sauce is one of the classic dishes of Greek cuisine. For the sharp taste of moussaka, it is preferable to use minced lamb or half-and-half beef with lamb.

3 large or 4 medium eggplants about 2 kg (in Hebrew - hatzilim)
1 kg minced meat (lamb + beef)
2 onions
4-5 large tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. white wine
1 teaspoon oregano (oregano in Hebrew)
¼ tbsp. chopped parsley
¼ tbsp. breadcrumbs (in Hebrew - prirurei lechem)
Vegetable oil for greasing and frying (preferably olive)

To fill the top layer:

60 gr. butter
6 tbsp. spoons of flour
1 liter of milk
Nutmeg (in Hebrew - egoz nutmeg)
150 gr. feta or cascaval cheese (Caciocavallo), or mozzarella

Let's prepare the eggplants. Cut into circles, up to 1 cm thick. I like to cut diagonally. The slices turn out oval. Sprinkle each circle with coarse salt (if there is no coarse salt, then fine salt) and leave for 20 minutes. Salt draws out the bitterness from the eggplant. After 20 minutes, wash off the salt and dry each circle with a towel or paper napkin.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and place eggplant mugs on it. Lubricate with a small amount of vegetable (preferably olive) oil.

Place in the oven on the very top, under the grill. Bake for 5-10 minutes until golden brown. For those who are especially diligent, turn it over and bake on the other side too. The main thing is that the eggplants become soft. In this way we prepare the entire portion. You can, of course, simply fry the eggplants in oil, but I don’t like to do this because of the huge amount of oil that the eggplants absorb.

Let's put the finished eggplants aside and start stuffing. Finely chop the onion

and lightly fry it.

Add the minced meat and continue frying for another 5 minutes.

Add garlic. Salt and pepper. Add chopped tomatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes.

Cook for another 10 minutes.

Add wine and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add oregano

and then parsley

and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring, until thickened. Remove from heat.

Grease the moussaka mold with vegetable oil. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Place a layer of eggplant

then a layer of minced meat with sauce.

Then again the eggplant and again the sauce. Place the eggplants on the top layer.

Grate half the amount of cheese.

Let's move on to preparing the fill. It's actually béchamel sauce. Let's prepare it like this. Heat the milk in the microwave or in a saucepan. It should be warm, but not hot. Melt butter in a frying pan or saucepan.

Add flour little by little, stirring quickly. Pour in the milk in small portions, constantly stirring with a spatula or whisk to prevent lumps from forming. Bring to thickness.

Remove from heat. Grate a little nutmeg.

Grate a little nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, beat the yolks and remaining cheese with a fork.

Add to the mixture a little at a time with one hand, and quickly stir with the other so that the yolks do not harden due to temperature.

Pour the sauce over the eggplants.

The sauce should cover the entire surface.

Place in an oven preheated to 180 degrees and cook for 1 hour. Let cool slightly and serve.

Bon appetit!

Moussaka is a popular dish in Greek cuisine. The dish is high in calories and incredibly tasty, served in every Greek restaurant.

Moussaka is a casserole of vegetables, primarily eggplant, and meat with bechamel sauce. The moussaka recipe is known in the cuisine of many countries, but Greek moussaka is the most delicious.

There are many varieties of eggplant and meat casserole, and there is always room for your own culinary and taste preferences. After all, a wonderful cap of French bechamel sauce was added to the Greek moussaka - and the taste of the dish only benefited! With traditional Greek yogurt instead of sauce, moussaka is just as wonderful.

Homemade moussaka recipe

The recipe includes the basic components of Greek moussaka (eggplant, meat, bechamel, cheese) with a little improvisation (no nutmeg, but sun-dried tomatoes). The classic recipe is presented at the end of the page.

Ingredients

eggplants - 1 kg
onion - 2
minced beef (lamb) - 500 grams
tomatoes - 3 medium
sun-dried tomatoes - 4-5 pcs.
dry red wine - 150 ml
cheese - 100 grams
butter - 70 grams
milk - 1 glass
flour - 1.5 tbsp. spoons
spices, salt, pepper, olive oil

How to cook moussaka

Eggplant for moussaka.
The basis of the moussaka is layers of eggplant, due to which the appetizer holds its shape when served portionwise. For a perfect serving, take young fruits without ripened seeds.

To peel or not to peel eggplants for moussaka?
In a traditional dish, vegetables are used with the skin, but you can also peel them completely or remove them in strips. When baked, the skin will become soft and practically not noticeable in the dish. If you decide to leave, then choose eggplants without dark spots.

How to cut?
The shape of the cut does not play a big role - cut lengthwise to get plates, or crosswise into circles. The main thing is that the eggplant pieces fit well into the mold, without leaving empty spaces between them. Take this into account when choosing the cutting shape. The thickness of the pieces is 0.5-1 cm.

Then the eggplants should be thermally processed.
How? They can be blanched, baked in the oven, or fried in a frying pan (grill pan).

If you bake in the oven or fry, place the chopped eggplants in a bowl, add salt and leave for 20 minutes to release the bitterness. Rinse under running water and dry. Then fry with a little oil. It is worth remembering that eggplants absorb a lot of oil when frying, and when they are ready, they release the oil back. Knowing this feature, use a minimum of fat - only to lubricate the bottom of the pan, and then place the eggplants on a sieve to allow the oil to drain.

To bake in the oven, brush both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil.

Minced meat for moussaka.
Fry the minced beef in olive oil. Stir all the time and break up any lumps.

Peel and chop the onion. Cut the tomatoes in half and grate the pulp on a coarse grater, discard the skin. Add onions and tomatoes to the minced meat.

Stir and continue cooking for 5-7 minutes. Then pour in the wine. Which wine is better? Opinions differ on this matter, choose according to your taste - red, white, or even brandy.

Add spices to the minced meat: bay leaf, oregano, allspice, cinnamon, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest, chili pepper flakes - to your taste.

Turn the heat to low and evaporate the liquid, bringing the minced meat until cooked and remembering to stir from time to time. The finished minced meat should be dry and the liquid should be completely evaporated.

Prepare the béchamel sauce.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour; a whisk works great for this. Aim for a thick roux (flour and milk base). Set the heat under the saucepan to minimum. Let the butter and flour almost boil.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour in the milk in a thin stream while stirring constantly. Warm the milk slightly before adding.

The sauce will change before your eyes: at first it will be liquid, and after a couple of minutes it will begin to turn into a thick, creamy consistency.

So, the base sauce is ready, but it can be supplemented with grated cheese or egg yolk, and seasoned with nutmeg.

When all the components of the moussaka are ready, you can start assembling. For this purpose you will need a baking dish with sides.

Assembly and laying out.
First, form the bottom layer of eggplant, placing the largest pieces tightly together.

Sprinkle with grated cheese.

The next layer consists of minced meat.

Cover the minced meat with a layer of eggplant. If the shape and quantity of products allows, the styling can be increased by a couple more layers. The last layer is definitely eggplant - they are sprinkled with cheese and poured with bechamel sauce.

Sprinkle the top with cheese.

Cover the pan with foil. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Then remove the foil and cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Serving moussaka.
Before serving, moussaka should (if you have the patience) cool down: lukewarm or cold, it is perfectly cut into portioned pieces.

Other moussaka recipes. What Moussaka May Include

Vegetables. Some recipes for Greek moussaka include potatoes, which must be prepared in the same way as zucchini (chopped and fried or baked). Usually it is placed at the base of the casserole to give stability to the multilayer structure. The presence of potatoes does not particularly affect the taste, but a high-calorie dish with potatoes becomes even more satisfying and high-calorie.

Ground meat. Classic moussaka recipes use minced lamb or a mixture of minced lamb and beef, but if you like pork and beef, then cook with it.

Sauce. For the base of the sauce, you can use not only wheat flour, but also corn flour (bechamel with corn flour is pure improvisation, and it is very tasty and unusual).

You can make portioned mini-moussaka: cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, carefully remove part of the pulp, and blanch the boat in salted water; fry the minced meat with the removed pulp, pieces of tomatoes, chopped onions and seasonings; put the minced meat in a boat, pour sauce (yogurt or bechamel) on top; put it in a mold, add a little water and bake it in the oven.

Classic Greek moussaka recipe

Perhaps I should have started with this moussaka recipe since it's considered basic. Includes, in addition to eggplant, potatoes. Nutmeg is included in both minced meat and bechamel.

(for 7 people)

Ingredients

For the base

3 kg potatoes
2 kg eggplant
1/2 liter olive oil

For minced meat

850 grams ground beef
1 onion
2 fresh tomatoes
2 glasses of water
salt and pepper
2/3 cup olive oil

For the bechamel sauce

5-6 tablespoons flour
250 grams butter
400 grams of baked milk
800 grams of water - to dilute the milk
40 grams of grated easy-melting hard cheese
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon nutmeg powder
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

How to cook moussaka in Greek

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into long slices 2 cm thick.

2. Wash the eggplants and cut them into 2 cm thick slices. Place the sliced eggplants in salted water for 20 minutes to remove the bitterness.

3. At medium temperature, fry the potatoes on both sides in olive oil, then the eggplants.

4. To prepare the minced meat, grate 2 tomatoes and finely chop the onion.

5. Fry the onion in a saucepan, add minced meat and fry it for 7 minutes.

6. Add grated tomatoes, salt, pepper, nutmeg to the pan and pour in 2 cups of water.

7. Cook the minced meat for approximately 45 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated.

8. As soon as the potatoes, eggplants and minced meat are ready, start filling the pan. Place a layer of potatoes on the bottom and a layer of eggplant on top of it. Place the minced meat on the eggplants. Place another layer of eggplant on top of the minced meat, and another layer of potatoes on top of the eggplant.

How to make bechamel with eggs

Dilute the baked milk with water. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Once the butter has melted, add flour to the pan - while constantly stirring the mixture. Then add the nutmeg and egg yolks to the pan, then very slowly pour in the milk.

Turn up the heat. Remove the pan from the heat as soon as the mixture comes to a boil.

An alternative way to prepare bechamel is to slowly add grated cheese and stir until desired thickness. Then you don't need to sprinkle cheese on top of the casserole.

Pour the prepared béchamel sauce over the top potato layer and sprinkle grated cheese and breadcrumbs on top.

Preheat the oven and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Recipe with potatoes and zucchini

It is generally accepted that moussaka necessarily includes eggplant. But this is not a feature of all kitchens. In Romania and Serbia, tomatoes are used instead of eggplants. And in Bulgaria, the moussaka recipe calls for the formation of layers of potatoes and minced meat.

Recipe ingredients: eggplants - 4 medium, zucchini - 3 medium, potatoes - 2 medium, sweet pepper - 2, onion - 1, tomato - 4-5, garlic - 2 cloves, tomato paste - 1 tbsp. spoon, minced beef - 500 g, seasonings (cumin, nutmeg, salt, pepper, coriander, thyme, oregano), fresh parsley, olive oil, parmesan - 70 g, bread crumbs.

Preparation. Cut the eggplants and zucchini into slices, place in a colander and generously salt. Cover with a lid and press down with a weight to drain the liquid. Leave for 20 minutes. Then fry in olive oil until light brown. Remove excess oil with kitchen paper.

Lightly boil the potatoes in their jackets. Peel and cut into slices no more than 5 mm thick. Fry finely chopped onion and ringed pepper (remove the seeds first) until soft and slightly brown. Add 1 clove of garlic pressed through a press. Fry the ground beef in a frying pan with butter, seasoning it with spices, pepper and salt.

Make tomato sauce. Peel the tomatoes, cut into small pieces, mix with paste and 1 clove of garlic. Season to taste and simmer over low heat until thickened.
Mix breadcrumbs with finely chopped parsley, finely grated cheese and spices.

Place in the mold in layers: first - a layer of potatoes, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, then a layer of minced meat, then a layer of eggplant, pour over half the tomato sauce and lay out the fried onions and peppers, sprinkle with breadcrumbs with herbs and cheese, then a layer of zucchini, pour over them with the remaining tomato sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 180C for about 30 minutes. Cover with foil for the first 10 minutes. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Vegetarian moussaka without eggplant

Moussaka is a terribly high-calorie dish. And at the same time delicious. Those who don't eat meat will love this vegetarian casserole recipe. To be precise, this is moussaka without meat, but with eggs and dairy products, that is, moussaka for lacto-ovo vegetarians.

Recipe ingredients: carrots - 250 g, celery - 1 root (about 100 g), onion - 2, olive oil, potatoes - 5, green beans - 500 g, rice - 0.5 cups, eggs - 4, milk - 0.5 -0.75 cups.

Making moussaka for vegetarians

Finely chop or grate the carrots and celery. Fry in oil until soft with finely chopped onion. Boil the potatoes in their skins, peel and grate them on a coarse grater. Cook beans and rice separately. Cut the beans into small pieces. Layer in pan, starting with the potatoes.

Make a sauce from milk and eggs, add salt and your favorite spices. You can also make classic bechamel. Pour over the vegetables (shake the pan a little so that the sauce reaches all layers).
Bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Cut the cooled moussaka into squares or rectangular pieces. Can be served with sour cream.

Ancient and eternally young Hellas not only generously shares with its guests its rich and unique history, picturesque seascapes, beautiful resorts, the good nature and hospitality of its inhabitants, but also the tastes and aromas of its national dishes.

And everyone who has been here dreams of returning, at least for a short time, to once again enjoy the unique charm of this wonderful country and the magnificent “feast of taste” of Greek cuisine.

For those who have not yet been to Greece, and for those who, after visiting this wonderful country, have retained warm memories of small cozy taverns, I propose to take an exciting journey in the form of a small culinary adventure called “Traditional Greek dish Moussaka.”

Let's join in the celebration of taste by exploring the history of the famous Greek dish and how it is prepared.

A little history

What is moussaka?
Moussaka (emphasis on the last syllable) is a casserole of eggplant and lamb, sometimes beef, pork or chicken, topped with a thick layer of bechamel sauce, which becomes firm and golden in color during cooking.

I don’t think that Socrates or Demosthenes tried moussaka. It was not served either in ancient Athens or in glorious Sparta. And she could not have appeared in those ancient times. However, this dish has its own interesting history..

Its main components - eggplants, having passed their winding path from East India to ancient China, and at the same time to Central Asia and Egypt, only in the 13th century they came from Arab countries to Italy, and then to Spain and Greece.

Europeans did not eat them for a long time, thinking that they were poisonous. The Greeks began to cultivate and consume eggplants only at the end of the 19th century. The name “moussaka” itself first appears in an ancient Arabic book of the thirteenth century known as “The Baghdad Cookbook”.

But the method of preparing the ancient Arabic moussaka is not much similar to the Greek one, just as the culinary recipes for dishes under the identical name that are prepared in Libya, Turkey and Moldova are not similar to it.

Became moussaka, the culinary hallmark of Greece, which is so loved by gourmets in many countries around the world, was invented by the famous chef Nikos Tselemendis at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The renowned Greek culinary specialist studied his art in Vienna, and then, returning to Greece, worked as a cook in various foreign embassies.
In 1919, he became the general director of the large Ermis hotel, but in the same year, leaving this prestigious post for unknown reasons, he left for America.

There he worked in many famous and most expensive American restaurants, while simultaneously receiving higher education in three specialties: cook, pastry chef and nutritionist.

Returning to Greece in 1932, Nikos founded a small pastry school and at the same time wrote a cookbook in which he published his own recipes. The cookbook quickly became extremely popular and was reprinted 15 times within one decade.
Until now, it is on the table for many famous Greek chefs.

As Tselemendis himself explains, in his culinary creations he wanted to combine traditional Greek products with the best inventions of gourmet European cuisine, of which he was an ardent admirer.
This was successfully achieved in moussaka!

From the combination of vegetables and lamb familiar to every Greek peasant with French béchamel sauce, Greek moussaka truly became a world culinary masterpiece and gained enormous popularity, first among the Greeks themselves, and then throughout the world.

Is there moussaka with lobster?

Just two or three decades ago, the world knew almost nothing about Greek cooking.

There is a certain stereotype that Greek cuisine consists of very simple dishes without any frills, and they are prepared by Greek chefs according to the recipes of their grandmothers or aunts - these dishes will definitely not surprise gourmets with their variety and taste.
Just think, simple Greek moussaka, why be surprised?

However, I will give a few examples of the incredible popularity of Greek dishes.

Young Greek Chef Nikos Karvelas, who currently lives in New York, opened his family restaurant there, which has become a very fashionable establishment among the most sophisticated and expensive restaurants in America.
It is visited by many world celebrities such as Chris Cornell - vocalist of the band Soundgarden, famous singer Rihanna, David Blaine - famous magician and magician, Brazilian football king Pele, pop diva Madonna and many others.

As you know, world stars are very capricious in their choice of products. For example, Madonna does not eat meat, but only fish or seafood, and Pele hates eggplants. But meat and eggplant are the main ingredients of Greek moussaka, and yet celebrities order it among other Greek dishes. How so?

Nikos believes that everyone has the right to their own quirks, both world celebrities and ordinary visitors, so he tries to please any client. Having learned that Madonna wanted to try Greek moussaka, he replaced lamb with lobster meat for the pop diva, and eggplant with papaya for Pele. And then, I watched the surprise and delight on the faces of my clients when they tried his creations.

Charalambos Nikolaidis, probably the only Greek living in remote northern Alaska. He taught the Eskimos and Aleuts to eat moussaka, tzatziki, spanakopita and other Greek dishes. Surprisingly, this is true!

Charalambos, having arrived at the ice sculpture festival held annually in the small town of Fairbanks, was fascinated by its rugged northern beauty and decided to stay here. He bought himself a small wooden log house, where he settled with his wife.

Here they opened a Greek restaurant, which is in constant demand among local residents, who liked all Greek dishes, and especially moussaka. They consider it the best delicacy in the world.

And on the other side of the world, in distant Australia, a book was published in 2012 that became the bestseller of the year and it is not a detective story, not an adventure, not a fashionable fantasy or an essay on psychology.

The book is called "My Greek Cuisine", and its author is an Australian of Greek descent Maria Bale, who was born in Melbourne. Her mother is Greek from the Peloponnese Peninsula.
Maria explains the success of her book very simply:

“I really wanted to give my children the treasure my mother left me - recipes for traditional Greek dishes that she had collected for many years.
When I wrote it, I realized that this was a gift not only to them, but to all my readers who adore Greek cuisine.”

And the recipe that appears on the first page of her book is Greek moussaka.

Well, the time has come for us to organize this little celebration of taste, prepare and treat ourselves and our loved ones with this wonderful dish!

Recipe for classic Greek moussaka with eggplant, potatoes and minced meat

Since childhood, I remember that the preparation of moussaka in our house began with disputes between my grandmother and her friends whether they put potatoes in moussaka or not. Some argued that it is mandatory, others that real moussaka is prepared only with eggplant.

I think that such disputes arose not only in our kitchen, but also in many other Greek houses. They continue to this day. But regardless, whether or not my grandmother put potatoes in the dish, it has always been one of my favorites that she prepared. I make moussaka with potatoes for my family. My husband and children prefer this version of the dish.

To prepare moussaka we will need:

1 kg eggplant (about 6-7 medium fruits);
400-450 grams of potatoes (about 5 medium-sized pieces);
100 grams of grated Parmesan cheese;
2-3 tablespoons breadcrumbs;
2 tablespoons .

For the meat filling:

500 grams of ground beef;
250 grams of minced pork (for those who don’t eat pork, you can replace it with chicken or lamb);
half a teaspoon of olive oil;
2 medium sized onions;
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped;
a little parsley:
400 gr. fresh tomatoes;
1 tablespoon of tomato paste;
half a glass of dry white;
1 teaspoon sugar;
1 cinnamon stick;
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg;
1 bay leaf;
4 allspice peas, salt and black pepper to taste.

For the bechamel sauce:

5 tablespoons butter;
5 tablespoons flour;
¼ teaspoon nutmeg;
150 grams of grated hard melting cheese;
half a teaspoon of salt;
1 liter of milk;
a little olive oil 1-2 tablespoons.

Preparing all components

1. First of all, let's prepare the eggplants. We wash, remove the stalks and cut them into medium-sized slices of about 1 cm. In a bowl, make a salt brine with 0.5 liters of water, 1 tablespoon of coarse salt, and soak the eggplants in it for 1 hour so that all the bitterness comes out of them. While the eggplants are “taking a salty bath,” we put a deep frying pan on the fire and add 2 tablespoons of oil to it.

2. Grate 2 medium onions on a coarse grater and fry them until golden brown, then put the mixed minced meat in a frying pan and mix well with the fried onions. Add chopped garlic, and then dry wine and mix everything well again.

3. While the wine is evaporating, peel the tomatoes and grate them on a fine grater, put the resulting mass in the frying pan with the minced meat and mix everything well again. Dissolve tomato paste in water and pour into a frying pan.

4. We put our spices: nutmeg, bay leaf, allspice, cinnamon. Salt, pepper and add sugar to taste, reduce the heat to low and leave the mixture to simmer until all the liquid has evaporated.

5. Before turning off the heat, remove the cinnamon, bay leaf and allspice from the mixture, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and stir the mixture again.

6. We take out the eggplants, rinse them in cold water, place them in a colander and let the water drain.

7. Peel, wash and cut the potatoes into medium-sized mugs and place the potatoes on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and lightly greased with olive oil. Place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 10 minutes.

8. We do the same procedure with eggplants that have been pre-dried with a paper towel.

Attention! Many Greek housewives fry eggplants and potatoes in a frying pan in a small amount of oil on both sides for several minutes.
In any case, whichever method you choose, remember: the vegetables must be half cooked so that they do not fall apart during the process of assembling the casserole itself.

Now you can start preparing the bechamel sauce.