Vegetarian Moussaka (with Bulgur)
March 18, 2011
I was pleasantly surprised with the way this recipe for Vegetarian Moussaka, from Cooking Light magazine, turned out. Delicious! The boys and my niece wouldn’t go near it, but all the adults eating thought it was excellent and worth making again. I served it with Mediterranean Pepper Salad, a favorite of mine.
Traditional moussaka is prepared with fried eggplant, ground beef and tomato sauce, and a generous amount of bechamel sauce on top. This lighter version broils the eggplant slices instead of frying them (so much less messy!), substitutes bulgur (cracked wheat) for the meaty texture of the beef, and goes light on a white sauce made with skim milk. You will not feel like you’re eating meat with this dish, but the bulgur definitely adds a heft to the sauce that helps the meal taste hearty and like less of a “light” version of a better dish.
I was careful to season all the components of this meal well, since many of the comments on the original recipe lamented that it was bland. I seasoned the eggplant spices with salt and pepper, used regular diced tomatoes (not a no salt added variety), and added pepper to the sauce too. Other changes I made included whole cloves instead of ground (I used 4, don’t forget to fish them out), half a teaspoon of dried oregano instead of fresh, and skim milk instead of 1%. Also, I did not find that one tablespoon was enough olive oil to coat all the eggplant slices, so I just broiled some of them without instead of using more oil.
There are no difficult techniques in this moussaka, but the many layers of the dish mean it takes longer to prepare than most of my weeknight meals. (I cooked it in the afternoon and warmed it up for dinner.) Although it was very tasty and satisfying, I won’t be adding it to my regular rotation, especially since I couldn’t get my boys to try any.
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Filed under: Veggie Mains
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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4 Comments
1.
Jodi | March 18, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Both the salad and the moussaka look delicious!
Dara Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 8:24 am
Delicious as leftovers, too! Mmmmmm.
2.
Margie | March 21, 2011 at 9:20 am
My Mom used to make the traditional moussaka (since my Dad was Greek). It was SO good. But since we don’t do meat in the house, this looks like it’s be good to try!
Dara Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 9:39 am
It was surprisingly tasty. Some comments on the original recipe said to double the bechamel sauce. I didn’t and thought it was enough as is.