Faux Pasta: A Sister Cooking Blog

Healthylady Moussaka

Last night Nel and I expressed a cross country burning desire for eggplant, despite it being March and clearly not eggplant weather. I’ve had moussaka before, but this recipe seemed alarmingly healthy (only one ounce of cheese?!) and I feared it’d taste like yogurt on vegetables or something terrible but forged on ahead, omitting the garlic and onions to make it low-FODMAPS. Surprisingly, it turned out to be really, really delicious. Labor intensive, so save it for a slow Monday when you’re studying while the sauce simmers and the eggplant drains.

Isn’t it charming n’ rustic how I ate a quarter of it before remembering to take a photo?

Moussaka (adapted from Whole Living)

Ingredients

1 cup Greek yogurt
1 oz Parmesan cheese, microplaned
1 egg
1 lb ground turkey
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper
Salt
3 tsp dried oregano
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Olive oil
1.25 lbs eggplant, sliced 1/4 in. thick

Directions

1. Toss the eggplant with lots of salt and place in a colander in the sink. Lay a heavy pan on top so it can drain for about an hour.

2. Brown the turkey in a pan. Add 1/2 tsp salt and all the cinnamon, nutmeg, oregano, and pepper. Let the spices cook for a minute, then add the wine, tomato paste, and tomatoes. Stir, cover, and let cook on low for about an hour.

3. Beat the egg, greek yogurt, and Parmesan in a separate bowl.

~*~ONE HOUR LATER~*~

4. Preheat the broiler. Rinse the eggplant really well, shake in the colander, and press it dry between clean dish towels. Place on a baking sheet (lined with foil for easy cleanup) and brush with olive oil. Broil about two minutes, remove the sheet and flip the eggplant slices over, brush with oil, and repeat. Make sure it gets browned!

5. Turn the oven down to 400. Brush a pie plate with olive oil and slap down a layer of eggplant. Cover with half the turkey-tomato mixture and put down another layer of eggplant on top. Add the last half of the turkey-tomato mixture, put down a final layer of eggplant. This one may be a little sparse depending on how much broiled eggplant you elected to have as a cookin’ snack. Top with the yogurt-cheese mixture.

6. Bake for 30 minutes at 400, and broil for a couple of minutes if the top isn’t nice and brown in some parts at the end. Let cool for at least ten minutes before eating.

-Paulina