Recipe for incredibly delicious vegan Greek moussaka without frying! Delicious, nutritious and rich in fiber. With lots of vegetables and almond milk béchamel with olive oil and wholewheat flour.
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Moussaka has become a trademark of Greek cuisine. It's no surprise that it's almost never missing from restaurants in tourist areas.
Its origin is not clear as there are reports of its origin from Persia, the Middle East, Turkey, and even further back, from the Ottoman Empire. Traditionally, it is found in the cuisine of the Middle East, the Balkans and other European countries. Judging by the ingredients, we can probably conclude that in its current form, influences from France (béchamel), India or China (eggplants) and South America (potatoes) have contributed. The path it followed until it took its current form is certainly long, as there are many variations, but also relatively recent reports of traditional moussaka recipes without béchamel.
No matter what its origin is, it is a crowd-pleasing food that rightly has a distinguished place in Greek cuisine.
While it is one of the most favorite foods, many avoid cooking it because of its complexity, the time it takes, but also because it is a "very heavy" food. At this vegan version of ours, we try to make it, not only delicious and with the authentic traditional taste, but also nutritious, healthy, and to simplify its preparation as much as possible. But if you want, you can fry the potatoes and the eggplants, following our recipe for the rest of the process.
Our vegan moussaka (compared to non-vegan):
- Is healthier, more nutritious and much richer in fiber as:
- We use almond milk, lots of vegetables, olive oil, turmeric, but also wholewheat flour and rusks.
- We do not fry the potatoes and eggplants. We grill them.
- It needs only 1 hour from us. See instructions for saving time in the notes below.
- Overall, it is ready in one hour and forty minutes (as it requires 40 minutes baking in the oven).
So it may seem like a complicated food, but the process is simple and the result is more than rewarding! In just four stages we will have a delicious and vegan Greek moussaka. We grill the potatoes and the eggplants, we cook the soya mince, we prepare the béchamel and the topping and we are set!
Our soya mince takes some time, as we have to chop a few vegetables, but that way it will become super tasty and nutritious. For the béchamel, we recommend almond milk, which can be replaced with soy milk, which will make the béchamel fluffier.
So... vegan Greek moussaka! Give it a try! 🙂
Vegan Greek moussaka without frying - With béchamel from almond milk and olive oil
Ingredients
Ingredients for potatoes and eggplants
- 4 large potatoes
- 4 large eggplants (preferably globe)
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- salt and pepper
Ingredients for soya mince
- 170 g soya mince (6 oz) (preferably organic)
- 3 grated tomatoes or blended or 500 g / 17.6 oz) tomato juice
- 1 large onion
- 1 large carrot
- 1 medium zucchini (optional)
- ½ pepper (preferably Florina)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp ground clove
- ½ tsp curry
- ½ tsp sweet paprika
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder (optional)
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika (optional)
- 1 tsp unprocessed sugar or other vegan sweetener
- ¼ cup olive oil for sautéing
- salt and pepper
Ingredients for béchamel
- 1 liter almond milk (33.8 oz) or soy milk
- 1 cup and 4 Τbsp whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- salt
Topping ingredients (optional)
- 1 whole wheat rusk or 2 small rusks or rusks
- 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- salt
Instructions
Preparation
- Soak the minced soy in hot water for 10 minutes to plump and soften. Then, drain it in a strainer, rinse it under water, and finally press it with your fist (inside the strainer) to remove the excess water.
- Cut the eggplants and potatoes into relatively thick slices (1-1.5 cm / 4-6 in). Optionally, soak the eggplants into salted water to unbitter them. Then, sprinkle some salt, pepper, nutmeg, and olive oil over the slices and mix well so that all the slices are oiled on both sides. Bake on a preheated grill for 10 minutes on one side and 5 on the other or until lightly browned and softened.
- While the potatoes and eggplants are grilled, chop all the vegetables into small cubes.
Soya mince
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium to high heat and sauté the onion for 2 minutes.
- Add the soya mince and the spices. Raise the temperature a bit and sauté for about 5 minutes.
- Add the carrot, zucchini, and Florina pepper, and continue sautéing for another 5 minutes, or until the soya mince start to turn golden brown.
- Add the garlic and continue sautéing for another 2 minutes.
- Finally, add the tomatoes and sugar and as soon as it starts to boil, lower the temperature and simmer for another 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
Béchamel
- Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pot, over medium to high heat.
- Gradually, add the flour, stirring constantly. If it sticks, lower the temperature a bit.
- Once the flour is lightly cooked (it gets a slightly darker color and starts to smell, in about 5 minutes), add the almond milk, nutmeg, and salt, and mix for another 7 minutes or until it thickens and becomes like a liquid cream. It shouldn't be too liquid. Once it's ready, add the nutritional yeast and stir well.
Prepare and bake the vegan moussaka
- In a medium baking pan (37x30x5 cm / 15x12x2 in), place in layers, first the potatoes, the eggplants, the soya mince, the béchamel and finally, sprinkle, optionally, with the topping.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C / 392°F for 40 minutes or until the béchamel gets a nice golden brown color.
Notes
- While soaking the soya mince, prepare the potatoes and eggplants.
- While cooking the potatoes and the eggplants, prepare the soya mince.
- While the soya mince is boiling, prepare the topping.
- Preheat the oven when starting the béchamel. So it will be hot when you add the béchamel and you'll put your vegan moussaka to bake without waiting.
- Instead of almond milk you can use soy milk. So, you will have a fluffier béchamel.
- To drain the soya mince well and get a better texture, place the strainer with the soya mince on a large plate and press it with your fist as if kneading it. If the plate is filled with liquids, empty it and continue draining it by pressing with your fist until it remains relatively dry. That is, until you press it and it produces little or no liquids.
- Cut the carrot and zucchini first into slices, lengthwise, about 0.5 cm / 0.19 in. thick. Then, cut each slice into strips, also 0.5 cm / 0.19 in. thick, and finally each strip into 0.5 cm / 0.19 in. cubes. The goal is to have small cubes to give texture to the minced soya.
- The topping is optional. We recommend it as it creates a crust giving a wonderful texture and rich taste. Alternatively, you can use:
- Ground nuts.
- Vegan topping. Blend in a blender or food processor ½ cup cashews, 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, ½ tsp ground nutmeg, salt and pepper, and from ¼ Tbsp onion powder, garlic powder and sweet paprika.
Nutrition
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Thank you very much for remembering us! We were very happy with your comment!
I made it very tasty today !!!
Thanks! We look forward to hearing from you when you try it 🙂
It looks great! I will definitely fix it!