Vegetarian Moussaka with Lentils

This delicious vegetarian moussaka with lentils makes a hearty and filling dinner that your family will love! Two homemade sauces and roasted eggplant slices are combined in a casserole dish and topped with cheese before it's baked in the oven to golden perfection.

Jump to:

• What is vegetable moussaka?
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Top tips
• 🥗 Serving suggestions
• 🍲 Leftovers
• 📖 Variations
• 🍴 You might also like these recipes...
• 📋 Frequently asked questions
• Recipe

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Moussaka is known as the Greek version of lasagna. In many ways it's like a lasagna, only with sliced eggplant instead of pasta based lasagna sheets. It has a similar delicious tomato based sauce, the same wonderful bechamel white sauce, and the same golden cheese topping.

This vegetarian version also uses lentils instead of ground beef or ground lamb. Lentils are really filling, satiating and rich in protein, which makes it an excellent substitute for meat in casseroles (like in my lentil cottage pie!).

This fantastic dish can seem intimidating, but is actually so much easier to make than you might think! Made in only 1 hour, it's perfect as a weeknight dinner, but also as a tasty dinner idea for special occasions. And don't worry, there are plenty of time saving options if you're in a rush!

What is vegetable moussaka?

Moussaka is a traditional Greek casserole dish made with eggplant and ground lamb or beef in a tomato sauce with a cheese sauce on top.

Vegetable moussaka is made without ground meat, and instead uses vegetarian ingredients such as mixed diced vegetables or lentils instead.

In this recipe, we use brown lentils as the main protein source. The result is a really tasty, but also filling and nourishing dish.

🥘 Ingredients

To make vegetarian moussaka with lentils, you will need brown or green lentils (canned or Instant Pot Lentils), along with onion, garlic, tomato paste, canned diced tomatoes, eggplant, fresh parsley and vegetable broth.

You will also need butter, flour and milk to make the bechamel sauce, plus some cheese to put on top.

🔪 Instructions

Start by preparing your lentils. You can skip step 1 if you use canned or precooked lentils.

Step 1: If using dry lentils, you have to boil them first. Rinse the lentils under running water. Add them to a pot, pour over water and bring them to a boil. Leave the lentils to simmer covered with a lid until the lentils are soft throughout. You might have to add more water if it evaporates before the lentils are soft. Drain off any excess water after cooking, and set the lentils to the side.

If you use canned cooked lentils, you simply have to drain and rinse them, them set them aside.

Step 2: Prepare the eggplant. Start by preheating the oven to 180 °C / 360 °F / 160 °C fan oven.

Slice the eggplant length ways in thin slices. Place them on a baking tray or on a table and sprinkle a pinch of salt on each slice. Leave them for 5-10 minutes. This will help the water "sweat out" from the eggplant.

Use paper towels to press the water out of the eggplant slices and wipe them as dry as possible. Then, place them on a baking tray and drizzle some olive oil over the slices.

Bake the eggplant in the oven until they are soft and roasted through, about 15-20 minutes. Set it aside for later.

Step 3: Finely chop an onion and garlic cloves. Heat some oil in a pot or skillet, and add the onion and garlic. Saute for a few minutes until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, vegetable broth, cooked lentils, and salt to the skillet. Bring the sauce to a simmer, and leave it to cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Then, add more salt and pepper to taste as well as roughly chopped fresh parsley.

Step 4: Make the bechamel sauce. Melt the butter in a small pot on medium heat. Add the flour to the butter, and whisk to combine. Add the milk slowly a little at a time and whisk in between to create a lump free sauce. After all the milk has been added, bring the sauce to a boil while stirring, and leave it to simmer for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened. Set it aside.

Step 5: Assemble the moussaka! Add half of the lentil tomato sauce to the bottom of a 9x13 inch casserole dish, then layer with half of the eggplant. Add another layer of the remaining lentil sauce, followed by a layer of the rest of the eggplant. Top it with bechamel sauce, and some grated cheese.

Step 6: Bake the moussaka in the oven until the cheese has melted and is golden, about 15 minutes.

Step 7: Remove the vegetarian moussaka with lentils from the oven, and leave it to chill for 10-15 minutes before serving. This allows it to cool down to a manageable temperature, and will help it keep its shape as you cut into it.

💭 Top tips

Here's all my best tips to make the best vegetarian moussaka with lentils:

• Save time by using jarred bechamel sauce and tomato sauce. A quick version using white and red pasta sauce is perfectly acceptable.
• Boiling the lentils can take some time. Buy canned lentils, or boil them a few days in advance to save some cooking time on the day.
• The steps are listed in the order of when you should start working on each individual component. In reality, many of the steps will overlap. You may for instance work on the white sauce while the tomato sauce is simmering and the eggplant is roasting.
• Don't skip the step of roasting the eggplant! It really makes the whole difference in the flavor and texture of the vegetable.
• I like to double up on the recipe and make 2 moussakas at the same time. One is served for dinner, and the other is frozen for later. Making a double batch takes the same amount of time as making one, and having a backup impressive moussaka in the freezer has saved the day on more than one occasion!
• As with any casserole, feel free to throw in any leftovers. I often add leftover diced vegetables, or even grains like quinoa or rice to the tomato sauce. This is my favorite way to reduce food waste, and a great way to sneak more vegetables into the dinner.

🥗 Serving suggestions

Moussaka is a tasty main course, and always popular for dinner. If you have ever wondered what goes with vegetable moussaka, these are some side dishes that I enjoy serving it with:

• Vegetables: Serve it with mozzarella stuffed mushrooms or roasted carrots and green beans.
• Salads: This dish is perfect served with a light salad, such as tomato and cucumber salad or Greek pasta salad.
• Bread: Serve the casserole with bread such as focaccia.
• Sauce or dip: A Mediterranean classic like tzatziki, or an American healthy ranch dip both work really well with this casserole.

🍲 Leftovers

Leftover moussaka stores really well. It makes for an excellent freezer meal, and is absolutely perfect for meal prep. Here is exactly how it can be best stored:

• Storing: Store the dish in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat the leftovers before serving them.
• Freezing: Freeze it in freezer safe containers. You can either freeze it in portion sizes, or freeze the moussaka whole if you wish. Thaw it in the fridge overnight before reheating.
• Preparing it in advance: You can prepare the casserole in advance, and keep it stored in the fridge for up to a day before baking it in the oven. If you're serving moussaka at a dinner party, you can actually prepare all the ingredients and assemble it the day before, and place it in the oven 30 minutes before you want to serve it.
• Reheating: Moussaka is definitely best served warm! You can reheat it in a microwave or oven until it's warm throughout.

📖 Variations

Although the recipe is fantastic, it's also really easy to adjust to suit your preferences, or any dietary requirements you may have.

• Vegan: This recipe can be made vegan if you use vegan butter and milk alternatives, as well as a vegan cheese option.
• Whole 30: Use dairy free substitutions for the butter, milk and cheese. You also have to replace the lentils, either with ground beef if you're OK to eat meat, or with a variety of diced vegetables if you wish to keep the dish vegetarian.
• Gluten free: To keep the dish gluten free, you can substitute gluten free flour blend for the flour.

🍴 You might also like these recipes...

If you love vegetarian main courses, you should try any of these recipes:

📋 Frequently asked questions

Can I make moussaka without bechamel sauce? - Absolutely. Bechamel, or white sauce, makes moussaka a lot better, but if it isn't your thing, you can definitely omit it as well. Alternatively, use a store bought white pasta sauce if you don't want to make it from scratch.

What's the quick version of the dish? - Combine canned lentils with jarred tomato sauce, and layer this with roasted eggplant slices. Add jarred white pasta sauce and grated cheese on top. Moussaka fixed in 40 minutes!

Recipe