This recipe is adapted from one by Anna Jones, featured in the Vegetarian Society's recent magazine. Anna has made it vegan - more on this at the end of the recipe* - but this version remains vegetarian and has some short cuts including the all-important sauce. It should take perhaps 1h 20m from start to serving; some ingredients can be prepped while others pre-cook.
Although this recipe looks quite long, there are no special skills involved - only peeling, slicing, turning and layering, and possibly boiling a kettle for the sauce. The quantities given serve 2 to 3.
A medium-sized griddle pan gives a nice effect for the aubergine and potatoes, but otherwise a frying pan is OK. Also needed is a large roasting tin and a fairly shallow, lightly-oiled oven-proof dish - a round one especially suits the finished moussaka. I used a cast-iron frying pan 4cm deep and diameter about 20cm. Some kitchen paper is useful to blot the tomato slices.
The oven is set at 180C and preps can begin as soon as it's switched on.
Vegetarian Moussaka
Ingredients
2 tbsp oil
250g large tomatoes (3-4)
2 medium red onions
1 small red chilli snipped finely or half tsp chilli flakes/powder
1 lemon, juice and grated zest
salt & pepper
300g small potatoes
1 large aubergine
500ml cheese sauce - ready-made or hot-water packet or granules
2 tbsp snipped fresh parsley
Method
1 Pour the oil into the roasting tin and place in the oven when you switch it on.
While the oven heats up, slice the tomatoes to 1cm, blot with kitchen paper then
halve them. Peel the onions and slice slightly more finely; halve the larger rounds.
2 When the oven is up to temp, tip in the tomatoes and onions. Add the chilli and
lemon zest, then season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat the ingredients
well, then roast for 20 mins. Remove from the oven but maintain the temp.
Meanwhile ...
3 Wash the potatoes and slice to about 1.5cm. Place in a pan with water, bring to the
boil and simmer 15 mins, then drain. Meanwhile ...
4 Heat the griddle pan (or frying pan) with a dash of oil. Trim the ends from the
aubergine then slice to 1.5cm. Cook the slices in batches until browned both sides.
Set aside.
5 Griddle or fry the potato slices until browned each side, then arrange in the oven
dish.
6 Add the lemon juice to the tomato and onion and mix well, then pile on top of
the potatoes, spreading evenly. Top with a nice arrangement of the aubergine.
7 Make up the sauce (if not ready-prepped) and pour it over the veg, covering
all the aubergine. Bake for about 25 mins until bubbling and turning brown.
Scatter the parsley over the dish just before serving.
Alternative Ingredients
The main ingredients are basic and don't lend themselves to alternatives, but if the sauce isn't that strong, some crumbled blue cheese or Cheddar could be mixed in. Some thinly sliced mushrooms could be added as a layer between tomatoes and aubergine, and/or two pressed garlic cloves, but otherwise I would keep to the hymn sheet.
Accompaniments
For wine I prefer red with this. A small side salad would go well, and perhaps some crusty bread if potatoes and bread are acceptable to your diners at the same meal. Or you could go mad and serve a couple of nice browned vegetarian sausages at the edge of the plate.
*Anna Jones's Vegan Version
The sauce is the issue. Anna recommends making a bechamel by melting 1.5 tbsp of coconut oil in a pan, adding same quantity of spelt flour, mixing to make a roux, then adding 150ml unsweetened almond milk gradually, whisking all the time to keep it smooth and continuing until it thickens.
Can it be called 'canneloni' if it contains no pasta? I think the style of the content justifies it.
I devised this dish as a nice way to serve aubergines - they're lovely to look at, but suffer an awful fate sometimes in sloppy dishes such as overcooked mass-produced ratatouille. And in most recipes the slices are fried before baking, which allows them to absorb as much oil as they're given. I prefer to microwave the slices and then allow the other ingredients to work their magic in the oven or on the hob.
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| via richard_north |
The recipe serves 4 but can easily be halved, doubled, or - as in my picture below - increased by half to serve six. The preparation takes 50 minutes or so, but can be done in advance by making the canneloni and keeping (covered) in the fridge overnight and making up the sauce and keeping separately. Baking the dish takes about 35min.
Aubergine Canneloni
Lightly oil a rectangular (approx 20x14cm) or square (17x17cm) fairly shallow oven-proof dish.
The oven should be at 175C when the dish is assembled ready to bake, middle shelf.
Ingredients
2 large aubergines
1 tbsp oil
1 large onion
large can chopped tomatoes
150ml white wine or vegetarian stock (otherwise water)
1 tsp soft dark brown sugar (otherwise clear honey)
salt & pepper
200g low fat soft cheese or Ricotta
50g grated vegetarian Cheddar
sprig of basil, snipped
50g finely chopped nuts (or flaked almonds)
Method
1 Trim away the ends of the aubergines and carve lengthwise into thin (about 7mm)
slices. Discard the skin-covered outer edge from each side; this should leave
about 8 slices for each aubergine.
2 Sprinkle with a little water and microwave on high for 3 mins in two batches,
spreading the slices around the plate.
3 Heat the oil in a medium pan. Peel and coarsely chop the onion and fry for 5min.
4 Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for 10min. (Meanwhile, go to 6 below.)
5 Add the wine, stock or water and sugar to the pan; simmer a further 10min. Add
salt/pepper as required. Set aside for now.
6 Meanwhile, mix the soft cheese, Cheddar, basil and nuts in a bowl and season.
7 Spread each aubergine slice almost to each end with the cheese mixture and
roll up tightly. Pack in the oven dish in a single layer, seam side down.
8 Bake for 20min (without the sauce).
9 Pour the tomato sauce over the dish, helping it to filter between the aubergine rolls.
Bake for a further 15min until well bubbling.
As so often, in the excitement of serving, I forgot to take a photo of the completed dish, so here's what was left of recipe-and-a-half after six people were served! (More went as seconds ...)
A decent side salad would go well, and as there's no pasta, perhaps baby potatoes. Since I tend to overcater with so many things I love to produce, here's the actual menu for this family lunch:
aubergine canneloni, baby roasted potatoes, mini stuffed sweet pepper halves, chick pea salad, pea/mint/onion relish, dark olive tapenade, French stick, savoury crackers. Followed by blackberry and apple crumble (topped with ground cardamom seeds), fresh strawberries and melon balls in mango juice, and Chantilly cream - but that's another story.
