How To Make Moussaka When You Don’t Have Enough Eggplants

Moussaka, one of my all times favorites, a delicious Greek dish which, as most of us know, calls for many ingredients, but TWO are basic: eggplants and ground meat.

This year, for the first time, I planted eggplants, to be more specific, one plant, to see what happens!!! What happened was not what I wished for and my plant produced one eggplant! One eggplant! That was it.

I still had my mind set on making moussaka, but the recipe I usually use called for at least 2-3 eggplants…
This is the variation, using the one eggplant I had:

Ingredients to make the dish:
1–Eggplant
2-3- large potatoes
1 lbs of ground beef or any other ground meat you have at hand
1 cup shredded carrots
2 Tbs minced garlic
1-2 finely chopped onions (depending on your taste)
1/2-1 cup tomato sauce (could make fresh tomatoes sauce)
Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients to make a cheese sauce:

2-3 Tbs melted butter (I substituted with olive oil)
2 Tbs flour (to thicken the sauce)
1 Cup half and half (I substituted with Silk Almond Milk and sour cream))
1 egg (I didn’t have an egg:(
1/2 grated cheese (best would be Parmesan, but I didn’t have it and substituted with sharp cedar cheese)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Cut the eggplant and the potatoes in round slices. Rub each in olive oil, garlic paste and little salt and broil on both sides on a cookie sheet. RESERVE the prepared slices for later.

On top of stove, cook the chopped onions, garlic and the ground beef (meat) until there is NO red left in the meat. Add the tomato sauce. RESERVE the prepared meat

In a pan, on top of the stove, on low heat, make the cheese sauce:
Use 2-3 Tbs. of melted butter or oil (as I did) the 2 Tbs flour, the beaten egg, SLOWLY add either the half and half, or the almond milk and sour cream. If you just have some of each, but not enough, combine them.
Add the grated cheese.Stir continually until the sauce looks thick and the cheese is completely melted.

LAYERS:

In a greased, baking dish lawyer the slices of prepared eggplant mixed with the slices of potatoes.
Pour the prepared ground meat on top of the layer, top with another lawyer of eggplants and potatoes.
I added a lawyer of shredded carrots, another lawyer of eggplants and potatoes (if you still have any left)
Poured the cheese sauce on top and bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until done.

Yummy! Enjoy, and please share with us YOUR TIPS.