Vegetarian Moussaka Recipe with Mushroom Sauce (2024)

Juicy, creamy and absolutely delicious! One of the most popular and beloved traditional Greek dishes, now done vegetarian! Although vegetarian moussaka is not a popular dish in Greece (as we all know Greeks love their meat!), after a lot of requests from my vegetarian friends, I was more than excited to come up with a vegetarian moussaka with mushrooms recipe that could happilyreplace my lamb/ beefmoussaka onmy family table!

This easy to follow veggie moussaka recipe never fails to impress and is always a crowd pleaser. Each stage will require dirtying some pans, but I think you will agree that the end result is well worth it! So go ahead, indulge yourself to this little sin..

Vegetarian Moussaka recipe – The secret is in the sauce

To prepare a traditional Greek Moussaka recipe, luscious layers of mince beef (or lamb) are cooked in a tomato based sauce, layered with sweet eggplants and creamy béchamel sauce and baked together until golden.

For this veggie moussaka recipe mince beef/lamb is replaced with a delicious juicy mushroom based sauce, keeping of course, all the fragrant spices of the traditional Greek moussaka which give its unique taste and flavour.

To prepare the sauce chopped mushrooms aresautéed in olive oil, flavoured with onions and garlic and then simmered in white wine and tomato sauce. Simply irresistible! Just remember to let the sauce simmer for a while to allow the flavours to mingle for that little bit of extra deliciousness!

Vegetarian Moussaka recipe – Prepare the vegetables

As inthe classic moussaka, the base for this vegetarian moussaka is nothing else than fried eggplants.

Some moussaka recipes also use sliced potatoes. So if you like potatoes, try adding a layer of sliced potatoes as the first layer to this amazing dish, for some extra “comfort” during the winter months!

For a lighter and healthier alternative to your vegetarian moussaka, try drizzling the aubergines (and potatoes) with some olive oil and bake them for ~20 minutes instead of frying them.

Tip: Some eggplants may be bitter, so it is very important to remove the bitterness by soaking in water, rinsing, seasoning with salt and letting them stand for half an hour in a colander.

Veggie Moussaka recipe – Prepare the Béchamel sauce

Preparing the béchamel sauce is probably the trickiestpart for this vegetarian moussaka recipe. To achieve the perfect texture for your béchamel sauce, make sure the milk is lukewarm and add it in the pan with the flour/butter mix just a little bit at a time whilst constantly stirring.

Tip: My personal trick is to use a hand mixer with the whisk attachment to save some of the effort while stirring, and it always works at treat 🙂

The perfect béchamel sauce for your vegetarian moussaka should be smooth and creamy. First of all, the key is to whisk the sauce constantly while pouring just a little milk at a time, allowing plenty of time for the flour to absorb the milk, so that sauce doesn’t turn lumpy.

Secondly, cook the sauce over medium-low heat in order to prevent it from burning and sticking on the bottom of the pan. But be careful to cook it enough, until you can’t taste the flour and it has a thick consistency.

If you are feeling a little lazy or don’t have too much time, you can skip the whole béchamel and try topping with good quality grated cheese instead!

So go ahead, give this delicious vegetarian Moussaka recipe a try and amaze your friends and family with this extra tasty hearty dish!

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