MUSHROOM MOUSSAKA

Eirini Fanarioti, Actor / Stage Director / Writer

One of Greece’s most beloved traditional recipes, with a vegan twist!

Preparation: 1 hour

Cooking: 30 minutes

Servings: 6-8
Ingredients
1,200 g eggplants (chopped into 1 cm thick slices)
1 + 1/2 kg potatoes or 2 large sweet potatoes (chopped into 1/2 cm thick slices)
300 g Portobello mushrooms, chopped into thick slices.
½ teaspoon garlic powder
olive oil
salt & freshly ground pepper

For the béchamel
100 g olive oil
100 g all-purpose flour
1 L sugar-free plant-based milk, at room temperature
nutmeg, grated
salt & freshly ground pepper

Preparation
Begin by preparing the vegetables. In a baking tray lined with parchment paper, arrange the eggplants, sweet potatoes and mushrooms in a layer (more than one layer may be required), brush with olive oil and season with salt, freshly ground pepper, thyme leaves and garlic powder. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C (top and bottom elements) for about 25 minutes, until they soften and turn slightly brown. In the meantime, prepare the béchamel. In a pot, heat up the olive oil. Add the flour, stirring constantly with a whisk for 2-3 minutes until lightly cooked. Gradually add the plant-based milk, stirring constantly with the whisk to prevent lumps from forming. Add all the milk, season with salt, freshly ground pepper, and nutmeg, and stir. Lower the heat and continue stirring with the whisk for 7-8 minutes, until thickened. Brush a baking tray or other oven-safe dish with some olive oil and lay out the eggplants, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms in alternating layers. Once layered, pour over the béchamel. Bake the moussaka in an oven preheated to 200°C (top and bottom elements) for about 30 minutes.