Veggie Moussaka

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In a bid to eat meat-free once a week, I made a vegetarian moussaka last week for dinner. I calorie counted it using My Fitness Pal (the resource I’m now using to lose weight) and it came in 928 calories for the whole dish of moussaka. You can then work out how many portions you want to make from it :)

The photos, I’m afraid are not my best as I just used my iPhone in pretty poor light! Forgive me?!

Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe

It’s been a while since I did a step-by-step recipe guide – I don’t know which sort my readers prefer? I go through phases of liking one style over the other. Anways, enough with the rambling, here’s how I made my Veggie Moussaka.

I used a selection of vegetables to make my moussaka – aubergine (eggplant), courgette (zucchini), large flat mushrooms and bell peppers. I flavoured a can of tomatoes with herbs, spices and garlic and made a topping using fat free Greek yoghurt and eggs (a trick I learned in my Slimming World days!)

I started by slicing up all my veggies – the aubergine into rounds, the courgettes into long slices, the mushrooms into thick slices and the peppers into big wedges. I did this by slicing each side around the stem.

I spread the vegetables out onto baking sheets and sprayed with oil spray before sprinkling over dried mint and oregano and ground cinnamon – they’re the flavours I personally associate with moussaka. I then baked in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe
Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe

I didn’t pre-cook the mushrooms, but with hindsight, I wish I had, to release some of the water from them. Instead, I placed them on the bottom of my ovenproof dish as the bottom layer of the moussaka.

Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe

Whilst my veggies were cooking I prepared the easiest tomato sauce ever, by cracking open a tin of chopped tomatoes and stirring in some crushed garlic, cinnamon, mint and oregano as well as some freshly ground black pepper.

Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe

I also made the topping by whisking a couple of eggs into the Greek yoghurt, and seasoning with black pepper before stirring in some grated parmesan cheese.

I then began to layer up my veg – first was the mushrooms as I mentioned earlier. I put a little of the tomato sauce and some of the topping over it and then continued this with the courgettes, aubergines and peppers.

Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe
Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe
Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe
Veggie #Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe

With the final layer done I then spread the remaining topping mixture over and sprinkled with the rest of the parm. Since my dish was a little too small, I ended up making two moussakas – one went into the oven to bake off, and the other cooled and into the freezer for another day – I’ll let you know how that turned out!

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I baked the veggie moussaka for about half an hour or so until browned on top and hot all the way through. This is a great dish to make in advance and put in the fridge till later. When I do this, I tend to bring to room temperature for about half an hour first before putting in the oven.

When cooked I served it up with some salad on the side. It was a little on the watery side – I think that was from the mushrooms and would probably cook them off first next time as I said earlier. But despite this, we both (hubs and I) really enjoyed this and I will definitely be making it again.

Perhaps I’ll put this on the menu for next week’s dinners and make the changes I suggested to see how a second run of this dish works out.

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Veggie Moussaka

Veggie Moussaka

Yield: 4
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 300g large flat mushrooms, sliced
  • 250g aubergine, sliced into rounds (approx 1 medium aubergine)
  • 300g courgettes, sliced into long strips (approx 3 courgettes)
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced into big wedges
  • 1 yellow bell peppers, sliced into big wedges
  • 1 x 400g canned chopped tomatoes
  • 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2½ tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tsp dried mint
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 500g fat free Greek yoghurt
  • 2 eggs
  • 50g grated parmesan cheese
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • one cal/low cal oil spray

Instructions

  1. Mix the mint, oregano and cinnamon together in a bowl. Set aside.
  2. Place the prepared vegetables on baking trays and spray with some oil spray.
  3. Sprinkle 6 teaspoons of the herb and spice mixture over the vegetables and bake in a 200C oven for about 20 minutes until slightly charred.
  4. Stir the remaining 2 teaspoons of the herb and spice mixture into the canned chopped tomatoes and also stir in the crushed garlic.
  5. Make the topping by whisking the eggs into the yoghurt, stirring in 20g of the parmesan cheese and twisting over some black pepper.
  6. Place a layer of vegetables on the bottom of an oven proof dish and spoon over a little of the tomato sauce and the topping mixture. Use the yoghurt mixture sparingly - you want enough to cover the top layer
  7. Continue layering the vegetables, tomato sauce and topping until you run out of vegetables, then finish the top layer by smoothing over the yoghurt topping and then sprinkling with the remaining 30g parmesan cheese.
  8. Bake the moussaka in a 200C oven for about 30 minutes until golden.
  9. Serve on its own or with a side salad.

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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 4
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 264Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 111mgSodium: 361mgCarbohydrates: 32gFiber: 7gSugar: 19gProtein: 18g

This site uses Nutritionix to provide estimated nutrition. Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.

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Disclaimer: Please remember, I’m not a dietician, I follow and tweak recipes, or create my own and work out the calorie content using resources online. I lose weight cooking my low calorie dishes, so am confident that I am keeping the calories nice and low. Always check with your doctor before going on any weight loss programme.

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