Vegetable Moussaka

This is a vegetarian interpretation of the Middle Eastern dish with ground meat and aubergines. A very flavoursome main course which needs quite a bit of preparation but we do love this dish, even my meat lover friends who do not like aubergines like to have this. 

Ingredients

A.  Dried green lentils 38 g

      Vegetable stock 200 ml

      Bay leaf 1 nos.

B.  Olive oil 1 tsp

     Onion, large, sliced 1/3

     Garlic, crushed 1 clove

C.  Mushrooms, sliced 75 g

     Chickpeas, rinsed and drained 1/3 can

     Fresh, ripe tomatoes, chopped 145 g

     Tomato puree 1 tbsp

     Dried herbes de Provence 2 tsp

     OR

     Fresh garden herbs (thyme, rosemary, oregano, basil, etc.), chopped, handful

D.  Aubergine, 2 large, cut into 1 cm thick slices 
     Natural plain yogurt 100 ml

     Eggs 1 nos.

     Mixed grated cheese 40 g 

     Salt and freshly ground pepper

     Fresh Italian parsley, lightly chopped to garnish

Preparation:

1. Heat the vegetable stock in (B), simmer the lentils with bay leaf for 20 minutes until just tender. Drain thoroughly and keep warm.
2. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan, stir fry onion and garlic over medium heat for 5 minutes, stir constantly to prevent charring.
3. Stir in lentils and all ingredients of (C) and 3 tbsp of stock collected from the lentils. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stir occasionally. Season the lentil mixture with salt and pepper.
4. Preheat oven to 180°C.
5. Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat and brown aubergine slices on both sides to reduce the water content.
6. Arrange a layer of aubergines in the bottom of a large, ovenproof, shallow baking dish, then spoon over a layer of lentil mixture, about half. Continue the layers until the aubergine slices and lentil mixture are used up. There should be 5 layers in total.
7. Beat the yogurt, eggs, salt and pepper and pour the mixture over the dish. Bake for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from oven, top with sliced cheddar and bake for another 15 minutes until the surface is golden brown and bubbling. Serve immediately. Garnish with chopped Italian parsley.

Serves as main course with salad greens and bread.