Moussaka Recipe

I like to lighten up recipes, if that is possible without taking away the flavor. Many moussaka recipes that I have seen use Bechamel sauce. While I like Bechamel sauce, I always thought that when it comes to Moussaka, it doesn’t add a lot of flavor to it. Bechamel sauce does add a lot of calories, as its ingredients are milk, butter and flour.

Moussaka is kind of a casserole, it consists of eggplants, meat and the Bechamel sauce. The sauce goes on top of the casserole. So since I decided not to use Bechamel, I had to come up with something else to put on top of Moussaka. So I decided to go with tomato sauce and some mozzarella cheese instead.

Usual moussaka recipes use meat, cheese and eggplants in the casserole. I am also adding some spinach to the meat to make it even better for you and to add more flavor.

I like Greek and Greek-style recipes, and I have posted some of them: Greek Style Potato Salad Recipe, Spanakopita Recipe, Couscous Salad With Eggplants, Feta and Red Onions.

Serve moussaka with a salad, such as Apple Salad, Greek Salad, Black Fig Salad With Goat Cheese and Parsley.

Ingredients For Moussaka

3 large eggplants

1 pound of ground beef
1 pound of spinach
1 medium Onion
1/4 pound of Feta Cheese
1/3 pound of Mozzarella Cheese
28 oz can of Crushed Tomatoes

a pinch of Nutmeg
a pinch of Cinnamon
a pinch of Dry Oregano

Olive Oil

How To Make Moussaka

Use eggplants to make fried eggplants using the Fried Eggplant Recipe.

Wash and dry spinach. Heat up some olive oil in a saute pan. Add spinach and saute for a few minutes, until it is wilted. Let the spinach cool completely, and then squeeze as much water as possible out of it.

Chop onions. Grate Mozzarella cheese.

Heat up some olive oil in a saute pan. Add add beef and cook a few minutes. Add onions and continue cooking until beef is completely cooked. Add the spinach, nutmeg, cinnamon and dry oregano. Add 1/2 cup of crushed tomatoes and cook until everything is cooked for a few more minutes. Cool the meat mixture.

Spread about a cup of crushed tomatoes on the bottom of a baking dish. Layer some of the eggplants on the bottom. Add about 1/2 of the meat and spinach mixture and about 1/2 of the feta cheese.

Next, add another layer of eggplant, the rest of the meat mixture and the rest of the feta cheese. Add the third layer of eggplant. Cover the eggplant layer with the rest of the crushed tomatoes. Add grated Mozzarella cheese. Make sure that tomato and Mozzarella cheese cover the eggplant layer.

Cover with foil and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350F. Remove the foil and bake for 10 more minutes.