Moussaka Bake

  • W04
  • Middle Eastern
  • Greek
  • Mains
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For the Sauce

  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 spring onions, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 2½ cups lentils & chopped nuts
  • 6 to 8 sundried tomato halves, chopped
  • ¼ red pepper chopped
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil (if possible unflavoured)
  • 1 tsp dried mint
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • ¼ cup water

For the Cheese Sauce

  • 500 ml almond milk
  • 1 Tbsp plain flour
  • 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • ½ tsp fine garlic granules
  • salt (don’t omit)
  • a knob of vegan margarine
  • ¼ tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp veg gravy granules

For the Vegetable Layers

  • 1 large aubergine, cut lengthways fried in a griddle pan and set aside
  • 2 medium courgettes/zucchini cut lengthways fried in a griddle pan and set aside

For the Sauce

  1. Heat up the oil in your frying pan (I used a cast iron skillet), and fry your spring onions until slightly golden.

  2. Next, stir in your garlic, and mix until it is slightly golden.

  3. Then add your red pepper and tomato puree, and mix for a couple of minutes.

  4. Now add your lentil and nut mixture, and mix again. Then add the remaining ingredients, and simmer gently for 20 minutes until the sauce thickens.

For the Cheese Sauce

  1. Place all the ingredients in a ‘milk’ pan and whisk.

  2. Heat the mixture up, mixing virtually non-stop, until you have a thickish consistency. Lower the heat, and continue cooking for a further minute or so.

To Assemble

Oven at 190ºC

  1. Grease a suitable Pyrex (or similar) oven dish (mine was around 7” diameter, 3” deep) then place the eggplant slices across the base and sides of the dish, so that they overlap one another. Then add half your ‘meat sauce’ to the base, followed by the zucchini slices, and half of the cheese sauce (try to even the ingredients out with the back of a large spoon).

  2. Next, add the rest of the meat sauce, then cover with a mixture of the remaining eggplant and zucchini slices – don’t worry, there won’t be enough to seal it, but that’s exactly what we want for the top – a random mix of things.

  3. Then add the remaining cheese sauce and finally sprinkle on some paprika with a drizzle of olive oil. Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, and remove when it’s really golden.