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Monday, September 7, 2009

Moussaka



Wow, this was fabulous! I had a huge sack of potatoes from the sweet potato gnocchi, and this seemed like a good way to use them up. It was somewhat labor intensive and takes about 2 hours to make, but it was definitely worth it! The instructions call for two layers of potato/eggplant, but I only had enough eggplant to make one layer, and the picture in the magazine one looked like it had one. Also, I don't have a 12x9 casserole dish, so I used two smaller corningware dishes and it worked out fine. Naturally, the second slice came out perfect, while the first slice that I got out to photograph looked like crap. Oh well!


Moussaka
Source: Clean Eating Magazine, May/June 2009
Serves: 8

2 lbs white potatoes, peeled, left whole
12 oz extra lean ground beef (I used 1 pound ground turkey)
1/2 onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
2 cups tomato puree
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 t oregano
1 bay leaf
olive oil cooking spray
1 large eggplant (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/3 inch slices.
1 cup low fat sour cream (or greek yogurt)
1/4 c evaporated skim milk
1 egg
2 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425. Fill a large pot halfway with water, cover and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Add potatoes, lower heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until firm but not fully cooked. Strain and set potatoes aside to cool.

2. While potatoes are cooking, brown meat with onion and garlic in a 2-qt pot over medium heat, breaking up meat into little pieces for about 4-5 minutes, until vegetables are tender and meat is no longer pink. Pour in tomato puree and 1 C water. Mix in cinnamon, pepper, oregano and bay leaf. Lower heat to simmer and cook, covered, 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cover 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil and mist with cooking spray. Lay eggplant slices on sheet and lightly mist again with cooking spray. Bake in oven about 8 minutes. While eggplant cooks, slice potatoes into 1/4-inch slices. Remove eggplant, transfer to plate, raise oven temperature to 475, re-spray foil and lay potato slices on cookie sheets. Lightly mist potatoes with cooking spray and bake in oven for 8 minutes. Remove. Lower oven temp to 350.

4. Make bechamel sauce: In a separate bowl, mix sour cream, milk and egg until blended; mixture should be thick.

5. Spray a 12x9-inch casserole dish with cooking spray. Arrange 1 layer of potatoes in dish, top with layer of eggplant, then pour all of turkey mixture over top. Top again with layer of potatoes and then eggplant. Finish with bechamel. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake in oven for 45 minutes, until set and lightly brown. If not brown, raise temp to 400 and bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Number of Servings: 8

9 comments:

Rose said...

Awesome! I love moussaka, but when I saw it my Monday Morning Diet-Self said, "skip over it! It's bad for you!" and I barely caught the "From Clean Eating"! Hooray! A Moussaka I can make :) Thanks for sharing!

Stefany said...

I've never had real moussaka, so I don't know how it stacks up. We definitely thought it was delicious, though!

Dolce said...

I love moussaka! My mother is a very good moussaka cook, so I never baked it myself...

Shannon Nora said...

Hi there, nice blog! I just found you while doing a google search for the nutritional info for the Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe I made from CE mag the other day. I love the magazine, so it's great to read about the CE recipes you're trying!

Unknown said...

what page is this on?
i feel like im going crazy? i dont see it in my issue for sep/october

Stefany said...

Shoot! Because it's the May/June Issue! Page 39 in that one, if you have it. Thanks for letting me know!

Chris said...

You know, I've always wondered what Moussaka was. The flavors sound delicious. I'll have to give this a try!

Kerstin said...

I love moussaka and would devour this right up - it looks great!

Unknown said...

I'd just like to state that I love, love, LOVE that magazine!! Thanks for cooking and showing us recipes from their pages:)