Lamb Moussaka

One of the people I follow on twitter posted a picture of a moussaka they made the other day and it made me absolutely crave one! I love moussaka and it would be a regular dinner when we were kids, usually the day after having roast lamb. Lamb has a bit of a 'fatty' rep with weight watchers and you can use lean beef mince for this recipe however the lamb mince I found really is not much higher in propoints. I found this pack in Supervalue and for the full 454g pack there is 23pp. The recipe serves 6 with decent sized portions and is only 8pp per serving. 

It can be quite time consuming but you can make it a day in advance and just bake it, or do what I did and just make the meat sauce a day in advance and assemble and cook on the day you want to eat it. It is pretty easy though and really tasty for something a bit different to your shepard's pie or lasagne.

Serves 6

Propoints per Serving: 8pp

Ingredients:

454g lamb mince

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic crushed

3 large carrots

3 bay leaves

1 can chopped tomatoes

1tbsp tomato purree

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp dried oregano

Few splashes of worcestershire sauce

100ml water

1/2 oxo cube

400g potatoes peeled

1 large aubergine

400g 0% fat greek yoghurt (liberte or total)

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp nutmeg

30g parmesan cheese grated

30g low fat cheddar grated

Start by finely chopping your onions and carrots. Brown the mince in a pan over a high heat and set to one side. In the same pan soften the onions and carrots for 5 minutes over a medium heat. There should be enough fat/moisture from the lamb in the pan for this but you can add some spray oil or a spash of water if it starts to stick. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute before adding back in the lamb. 

Add in the tomato purree, chopped tomatoes, worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, spices, water and oxo cube. Season and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes. While this is simmering, peel the aubergine leaving small strips of the skin and slice into rounds. Place in a collinder and salt well. Place something heavy on top and leave until ready to use. This will draw out the bitter juices and you should do this any time you use aubergine. Rinse them briefly and pat dry before using.  Slice the potatoes and leave to one side. Beat the eggs and mix with the greek yoghurt and half the parmesan. Season well and stir through the nutmeg. I prefer to use whole nutmeg and just grate a bit in. 

When the sauce is done you are ready to assemble. There are lots of different techniques to assemble a moussaka but this is the way I have done it. It is up to you how you choose to layer it but this works well.  Take a large ovenproof dish, one you would use for a lasagne or cottage pie, and place the potato slices on the bottom. Overlap these slightly so there isn't too many gaps. Pour the meat sauce over the top and then place the aubergine slices on top again overlapping these slightly to cover the meat as much as possible. Pour on top the yoghurt, egg and parmesan mixture and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan and cheddar.

Place in a preheated oven (200C) covered with tin foil. Cook for 20 minutes and then remove the foil and cook for a further 20-25 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the aubergine and potato is tender when you put a knife in. Leave to sit for 10 minutes at least to ensure the layers have time to set before serving. I served mine with brocolli and cauliflower but you can serve it with whatever veg/salad you like. It would go really well with a  nice greek salad and some balsamic vinegar. 

You can adjust this for simple start/filling and healthy by using lean beef mince, adding some quark to the white sauce instead of parmasan and cut out the cheese on top (or just take a couple of pp from your weeklies for the cheese, would be 1pp per serving).