I love Greek food and over the years, I have wanted to have moussaka- it looks and smells so good. But it always contains ground lamb or beef, which I can’t eat. Recently I ran across a couple of moussaka recipes that were meatless, and this recipe is inspired by them. The meat is replaced by intact grains, which mimic the consistency of the ground meat. Another possibility would be substituting with minced portobello mushrooms. Both intact grains and mushrooms are great gut-friendly foods!
One possible other possible problem with traditional moussaka for me is that it uses a rich egg and butter Bechamel-style sauce, which doesn’t always agree with my gut. So I have developed two gut-friendly fermented food versions using soft cheeses and Greek yogurt.
Ingredients
1 medium/large eggplant
4 (or so) small potatoes
1 jar Classico type tomato-based pasta sauce, 28 oz
½ cup bulgur (or other whole grain such as quinoa or barley)
1 cup water
Juice from 1 lemon
8 oz marscapone (Italian cream cheese)
8 oz ricotta OR ½ cup Greek yogurt and about ½ cup Greek feta cheese
8 oz mixed Italian cheeses, grated
Basil
Oregano
Fresh mint, chopped (about 1 TBS)
Fresh garlic, about 2 cloves, chopped
Roasted garlic powder
Poultry seasoning
Moroccan seasoning
Olive oil
Coarse salt, such as sea salt or Himalayan salt
Instructions
Slice eggplants, toss in olive oil, sprinkle roasted garlic powder, and grind coarse salt. Roast at 350 F for 20 min.
Slice potatoes, toss in olive oil and layer on the bottom of the casserole dish. Sprinkle poultry seasonings, basil, oregano, and garlic. Roast at 350 F for 30-45 minutes, depending how thickly sliced they are
Cook bulgur (or other whole grain such as quinoa or barley)- heat 1 cup of water until boiling, add ½ cup bulgur.
Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until water is absorbed – about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and let rest for 10 minutes. Then add chopped garlic and mint, and dried seasoning.
Just before assembling moussaka, add about 2/3 of a jar of Classico-type pasta sauce to bulgur/grain and add seasonings to taste.
Reserve rest of the sauce as the bulgur/grain will suck up all the sauce.
To make “bechamel”, substitute either:
- Combine ricotta and marscapone and add seasonings
- Combine marscapone with diced feta and Greek yogurt and add seasonings
To assemble moussaka:
- Spoon ½ of the bulgur/pasta sauce mixture over the potatoes.
- Spoon some of the reserve pasta sauce over the potatoes and bulgur
- Layer eggplants over the potatoes and bulgur
- Spoon the remaining bulgur/pasta sauce pasta sauce over the eggplants, and then spoon the rest of the pasta sauce over that.
- Layer the bechamel substitute (whichever) over the bulgur/pasta sauce
- Cover with the shredded Italian cheese.
- Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!!