Nancy’s Thrifty Easy Moussaka
As you probably know I was asked to attend a ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ event earlier this week. One of the recipes Nancy prepared for us was this wonderful Nancy’s Thrifty Easy Moussaka recipe
Nacy really its a lovely lady, charming and very down to earth – just the sort go people I love! She’s also an amazing cook!
Not only did it contain “aged” bread but it was really tasty and so not like the normal fatty / greasy moussaka.
I do so love Moussaka but am normally put of by the calorific value, but this one let me tell you was so good and so fresh.
Nancy uses minced beef but cleverly adds puy lentils which stretches the recipe and makes it go further.
So healthier and cheaper! #everyone’s a winner!
Nancy’s Serving Suggestions for Easy Mousakka
Personally Nancy serves this up with a green vegetable side, it also goes lovely with broccoli florets or green beans!
What is Moussaka?
Well according to Wiki
Moussaka is an eggplant- or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, which is common in the Balkans and the Middle East, with many local and regional variations.
The best-known version in Europe and the Americas is the Greek variant created in the 1920s by Nikolaos Tselementes. Wikipedia
No one knows what the exact origin of moussaka is but it seems to date from thirteenth- century from an Arabic cookbook known as the Baghdad cookery.
Lots of people also think it’s Greek – who knows? All I know is it’s really really good
So how do you use up old bread?
So how do you use up your old bread? I’d love to know
Please don’t chuck it in the bin, there’s so much you can do with it!
This is so good!
If you have a try please do let me know
Thanks Clare
Thrifty Easy Moussaka
Ingredients
- 250 g Minced steak
- 25 g Puy lentils
- 25 g green lentils
- 400 ml veg stock
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 large onion chopped small
- 1 large or 2 small aubergines cut into small dice
- 1 courgette cut into small dice
- 2 red peppers deseeded and cut into small dice
- 3 cloves garlic chopped small
- 1 tin tomatoes or 400ml fresh tomato sauce
- 2 tbsp. tomato puree
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp Herbs de Provence or mixed herbs
- Salt and pepper
- 100 ml red wine
- Fresh parsley – chopped 2 handfuls
- Topping
- 400 g Crème fraiche
- 1 egg
- 45 g Grated cheese
- 70 g Fresh breadcrumbs
- Grated nutmeg and grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Begin by washing the lentils and placing them in a sieve, simply rinse under cold water and add to a saucepan then add vegetable stock.
- Then bring to boil and allow it to simmer for 40 minutes. Whilst the lentils cook, dry fry the minced steak in a frying pan until they are well browned. Nancy likes to do this in batches and set it aside, then use the same pan to fry your aubergines until they start to colour.
- Heat up a dash of olive oil in a large casserole dish, add the onions and fry them gently for 10-15 minutes until soft. Add the courgettes, peppers, herbs, spices, seasoning and garlic to the dish.
- Follow this by giving everything a good stir and allow the vegetables to gradually heat. Then add the fried minced steak, auvergines, lentils, tomatoes, puree, wine and a large handful of chopped parsley (and any remaining cooking liquor) into the dish.
- Allow this to simmer, then cook in the oven on a low heat (160 degrees) for two hours. Once the mixture is thick and lovely, give it a taste and check for seasoning, stir in another handful of fresh parsley and transfer the lot into a large serving dish.
- PREPARATION FOR THE TOPPING
- In a mixing bowl, I mix crème fraiche, egg, grated cheese and breadcrumbs.
- Leave this to stand for 10 minutes or so to thicken (the breadcrumbs will absorb some of the liquid).
- Add a little seasoning then spoon this over the meat and vegetables.
- Grate over nutmeg and parmesan cheese then bake in the oven at 190 degrees for 40-50 minutes until golden brown and bubbling. Dig in!
