Hearty Moussaka with Potatoes and Eggplants

Original, juicy, bright, piquant, tasty! Moussaka with potatoes and eggplants is a famous dish of Balkan and Middle Eastern cuisine, a layered casserole of minced meat and vegetables. It turns out to be very juicy and filling; one piece can replace a full meal.
cook time: 1h 20 min
Ruby Colston
Hearty Moussaka with Potatoes and Eggplants

Nutrition Facts (per serving)

155
Calories
12g
Fat
6g
Carbs
5g
Protein

Ingredients (5 portions)

Basic:

Garlic 2 clove
Tomatoes (small) 2 pc
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
Potato 2 pc
Hard cheese 50 g
Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
Minced meat (I have veal) 500 g
Eggplant 2 pc
Tomato juice 250 ml

Recipe instructions

Step 1

Step 1
How to make moussaka with potatoes and eggplant? Prepare your food. Minced meat is traditionally taken from lamb, but you can use whatever you like or have on hand. I have minced veal. Wash and dry the vegetables, peel the potatoes.

Step 2

Step 2
Cut the eggplants lengthwise into slices about 1 cm thick. Add salt and leave for 15 minutes until they release their juice. Drain the resulting liquid, rinse the eggplants and dry with paper towels. This way you will remove the bitterness from them.

Step 3

Step 3
Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add oil for frying. Fry the eggplants on both sides until golden. Fry them in batches, adding oil after each.

Step 4

Step 4
Finely chop the garlic.

Step 5

Step 5
In another frying pan, also heat the vegetable oil. Fry the garlic on it for about 1 minute.

Step 6

Step 6
Add minced meat to the pan. Fry, breaking up any lumps, for 15 minutes. At the end, add salt, pepper and stir.

Step 7

Step 7
Cut the potatoes into slices.

Step 8

Step 8
Also cut the tomatoes into slices.

Step 9

Step 9
Grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Any cheese is suitable for this dish — hard, semi-hard, soft, such as mozzarella. The main thing is that it is tasty, of high quality, without milk fat substitutes and melts well.

Step 10

Step 10
Place potato slices overlapping each other in a baking dish. Spread half of the minced meat on top.

Step 11

Step 11
Sprinkle half of the cheese over the meat.

Step 12

Step 12
Pour some of the tomato juice over the minced meat. Repeat layers of minced meat and cheese. Pour over remaining tomato juice. If you don’t have tomato juice, but have a jar of tomato paste, you can make tomato juice yourself: just dilute the tomato paste with clean drinking water in a ratio of 1:2. That is, for 100 g of tomato paste, take 200 ml of water.

Step 13

Step 13
Place eggplant slices on top so that they completely cover the top layer.

Step 14

Step 14
Place tomato slices on the eggplants. If desired, the top can also be sprinkled with grated cheese. Bake the moussaka for about 25 minutes at 190°C.

Step 15

Step 15
Decorate the finished moussaka with herbs, cut into portions and serve. Bon appetit!

Additional rubrics

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