Cooking: Moussaka

Hello

Annyeoung

Konnichiwa

Ni Hao

It's time for my first cooking post of 2017 and today's recipe comes from Kayla Itsines: 28 Day Healthy Eating & Lifestyle Guide book which has over 200 recipes. I also want to add that I added one of the ingredients to the recipe and I accidentally used dice beef instead of beef mince.

So shall we get started?

Ingredients:

1 medium aubergine, sliced

oil spray

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 medium carrot, grated

1/2 courgette, grated

250 g lean beef mince

1 tsp dried oregano 

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

pinch of paprika

220 g tinned crushed tomatoes

125 ml(1/2 cup) reduced-salt vegetable stock

1 medium potato, peeled

40 g reduced-fat cheddar cheese, grated

I started off by preheating the oven to 160 degrees and lined a baking tray with baking paper, placed the sliced aubergine on the lined tray and then sprayed lightly with the oil. I then popped the aubergine in the oven for 15-20, once they were ready I set to one side.

In a large pan, heat the oil over a medium heat and add the onion, garlic, carrot and courgette and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next add the mince or in my case diced beef and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Then add the oregano, cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika, tomatoes and the vegetable stock and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While everything is cooking, place the potato in a saucepan of water (I always used already boiled water from the kettle first) and bring to the boil for 15 minutes or until the potato is tender.

Once ready drain the potato and pop to one side to cool, once ready cut into slices.

I don't have any pictures for these next steps and my dish was too big to do two/three layers so I could only make one layer.

spread a small ladleful of the meat mixture along the base of a 2-litre capacity dish, layer half of the aubergine slices and half of the remaining meat mixture. Repeat layers again, finishing with the meat mixture on top.

Arrange the potato slices over the meat mixture and sprinkle over the cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes in the oven or until the potato slices are golden and the cheese has melted, leave to stand for 5 minutes and then serve.

I can't wait to try this recipe again when I start following the recipe's more and actually get the correct meat, my error was only writing that I needed lean beef and not writing that it was mince, I also think this is a recipe that my parents would enjoy too. This was my first time trying aubergine too and I was surprised that I liked it, I was expecting that I wouldn't. It took me a little longer than the time suggested to prep just because it was my first time cooking it so kept having to go back and look at the recipe, I'm looking forward to trying and following the recipes and meal plans from her book.

If you're wanting Kayla's book then it is available in most UK supermarkets as well as available from her website as well as Amazon.

Let me know in the comments below if you try this recipe.

See you soon!

Annyeoung

Sayonara

Zai Jian

Bye