Vegetarian Moussaka with Mushrooms Sauce Recipe
The Vegetarian Moussaka with Mushrooms Sauce Recipe is a super delicious wholesome dish that is packed with the goodness of mushrooms and the creaminess of the bechamel sauce. Moussaka is a classic recipe from the Greek Cuisine that is usually made with meat, but this grilled and roasted eggplants baked in the mushroom sauce makes a scrumptious vegetarian version.
Make the Eggplant Moussaka for a weeknight dinner or for a party as a one dish meal and serve it along with a Crusty Garlic Bread and a salad by the side.
If you are looking for more vegetarian recipes here are some:
Equipments Used: colander, baking dish, oven
15 M
45 M
60 M
4 Servings
Ingredients
- 1 Brinjal (Baingan / Eggplant)
- 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese , grated
- 1/4 cup Bread crumbs For the mushroom sauce
- 250 grams Button mushrooms , chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic , chopped
- 1 cup Homemade tomato puree
- 1/2 teaspoon Cumin powder (Jeera)
- Salt , to taste
- Black pepper powder , for seasoning
- 1 sprig Parsley leaves , chopped For Bechamel Sauce
- 3 tablespoons Whole Wheat Flour , or corn flour or (corn flour + ragi flour)
- 1 1/2 cups Milk
- 1/4 cup Cream cheese
- Salt , to taste
- Black pepper powder , for seasoning
How to make Vegetarian Moussaka with Mushrooms Sauce Recipe
To begin making the Eggplant Moussaka with Mushroom Sauce, we will first prepare the eggplants. First cut the eggplants into 1/2 inch thick slices. Sprinkle some salt and keep it aside in a colander for about an hour.
After an hour, dry the eggplants using a kitchen towel. The next step is to cook the eggplants.
Preheat a skillet on medium heat, grease the pan with oil and place the sliced eggplants in the oil and cook them until browned and soft on both sides. Once cooked, place them on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.
Cooking the eggplants on the skillet, gives it a soft texture as opposed to baking them in the oven. If you plan to bake your eggplants, make sure you cover them with an aluminum foil so it does not dry out.
Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease a baking dish with oil and keep aside.
In the next steps we will make the mushroom sauce and the bechamel sauce, the two most important sauces for the moussaka
To make the mushrooms sauce, heat a teaspoon of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped garlic and mushrooms and stir fry them until the mushrooms begin to release the water. Add the homemade tomato puree, the salt, cumin and black pepper. Give the mushrooms sauce a brisk boil until the mixture thickens. Once you have a thick sauce, turn off the heat and keep aside. Stir in the chopped coriander leaves.
For the bechamel sauce, add all the ingredients into a saucepan and cook the sauce until it thickens. Once the sauce is thick, turn off the heat and keep the sauce aside.
Our final step to make the moussaka is to assemble the dish and bake it in the oven.
In a greased baking dish, sprinkle some breadcrumbs, this will help absorb the extra juices that come out when baking the moussaka.
Place a layer of cooked eggplants at the bottom, pour some mushroom sauce over this later. Next layer it with eggplants again and pour the bechamel sauce over. Finally sprinkle it with cheese on the top.
Bake the moussaka in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until the cheese melts and turns golden brown. Once done, remove from the oven and allow it to rest for about 10 minutes before you serve.
Serve the Eggplant Moussaka with a Crusty Garlic Bread and a salad by the side.
Archana Doshi
Archana Doshi is the founder of Archana's Kitchen. Archana launched Archana's Kitchen in 2007 as a way to keep track of her and family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Archana is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Archana says "I hope you enjoy cooking recipes from my website where the sole effort is to make cooking simple for you. When you try out one of our recipes, we are longing to hear back from you. Do take your time to come back and share your comments, as your feedback means a lot to me"