This dish for Chilean sea bass is melt-in-your-mouth wonderful! It was by far the greatest sea bass I’ve ever eaten, and I had it at Blue Water Grill in New York City. What I had at that restaurant and this recipe taste really similar. They offered sticky rice and bok choy alongside it.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 35 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 9×13-inch dish |
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt, or more as needed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, or more as needed
- 1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
- 2 potatoes, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
- ½ (14.5 ounce) can lentils, drained with liquid reserved
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 ¼ cups milk
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1 large egg, beaten
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Sprinkle eggplant slices with salt; set aside for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook eggplant and zucchini in hot oil until lightly browned, about 3 minutes per side. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain on a paper towel-lined plate, reserving as much oil as possible in the skillet.
- Add more oil to the skillet if needed and let it get hot. Cook potato slices in hot oil until browned, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain on a paper towel-lined plate, again reserving oil in the skillet.
- Sauté onion and garlic in reserved oil until lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Pour in vinegar, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to medium-low; cook until liquid is reduced in volume and thick. Stir in tomatoes, lentils, 1/2 of the juice from lentils, parsley, and oregano. Season with salt and black pepper. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Layer about 1/3 of the eggplant, 1/3 of the zucchini, 1/2 of the potatoes, and 1/2 of the feta in a 9×13-inch baking dish. Pour 1/2 of the tomato mixture over vegetables; repeat layering, finishing with a layer of eggplant and zucchini.
- Cover and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce: Stir milk, flour, and butter for together in a small saucepan; bring to a low boil, whisking constantly, until thick and smooth. Season with nutmeg and black pepper. Remove from heat, cool for 5 minutes, and stir in beaten egg.
- Pour sauce over vegetables and top with Parmesan cheese. Continue baking, uncovered, until sauce is bubbly and top is lightly brown, 25 to 30 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 240 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 26 g |
| Cholesterol | 58 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 426 mg |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This recipe is ridiculous. First, as others have said, it is VERY labour intensive. Second, the quantities are WAY off if you want to fill a 9×13 serving dish. Third, if you just dump your flour into your milk/butter like that, no amount of whisking is going to remove the lumps unless you have bionic arms. That’s only part of what’s wrong with this recipe. Nice idea, but I will look elsewhere for my vegetarian moussaka recipes from now on.
Waayyy too labor intensive. I followed the recipe but used a non-stick pan instead of the oil that would have been required. It was tasty and my husband liked it but the end product wasn’t worth all the frying. To me it was like ratatouille with a mild cheese sauce on top…and that could have been done in 20 minutes!!!
Takes time indeed, like 2 hrs. Hands-on! just frying all the thinly sliced veggies 3 min per side in multiple batches takes about 50 minutes. By the time you go through all the steps start to finish this is more like 3 + hours. All the veggies, especially the eggplant are oil sponges. The oil you have to keep adding amounted to 1/2 bottle of olive oil! Even draining everything on paper towels (1/2 roll later) does not soak up most of the oil. The ‘sauce’ is a bechamel sauce. Throwing butter, flour and cold milk together and whisking to boil is a lumpy thin mess that doesn’t thicken. Look up a bechamel sauce recipe before making this. Butter and flour are browned first slowly while the milk is heating separately. Add milk GRADUALLY while whisking continuously. It also takes like 20 minutes to bring to low boil. So by now you are in grease-land… You don’t need the liquid from the lentils. Too soggy. And baking this is more like 75-90 minutes…. Very frustrating experience.
Delicious
It’s a decent base recipe. One can of lentils is not enough for 2 layers. The author sautés the onions, mixes them with lentils and tomatoes and then, when assembles, miraculously pulls them separately from the mix and layers them? A note on frying eggplant, zucchini and potatoes – too much oil, recipe calls for 1 Tbsp for the whole dish – unreal. I suggest precooking eggplant and zucchini in a microwave with a bit of water and boil sliced potatoes to half-cooked state. Dish comes out way less oily and healthier. You can also start thinking about replacing white sauce that goes on top with a mixture of yogurt and eggs. The end result is very good and tasty without that many calories.
excellent ingredients, TERRIBLE instructions. You assume way too much basic knowledge and you left out whole section. Also, bake vegetables instead of frying! Much less time, less fat. I know how to cook so I have no problem assembling but would not recommend to a not-so-experienced-cook!
We were disappointed in this dish. It was a bit time consuming and not flavorful enough. I did roast the vegetables instead of frying to decrease calories. Otherwise followed the recipe exactly. Really needed more spices and a lot of salt. Family ended up putting sriracha on it which made the dish ok. Not a keeper for sure.
Very very disapointed. Frying only added unnecesary oil and ruined the flavor and texture of vegetables that should otherwise have been delightful. I don’t even want to talk about what could be done to salvage this recipe as the whole first half would need to be thrown out.
Very good! I did not change any ingredients, but I did bake the veg rather than frying (only to make it easier for me). Fits perfectly into a 9×9 inch dish.
Waayyy too time consuming for what you get. Also would be more beneficial to provide more specifics on amount of ingredients. Size of vegetables varies greatly and then to basically get each veggie, don’t think was necessary. if the flavor was amazing would’ve rated better. Not a keeper for me
I followed the recipe exactly and was delighted with the dish. It was labor intensive to brown the eggplant, zucchini, & potatoes, but the textures & flavors were well worth the effort. Yum!
Roasted the veggies instead of fried, used canned white beans instead of lentils, and added a splash of lemon juice and cinnamon along the way. Used a smaller dish than recommended. Tastes better every day!
I made this moussaka exactly how the recipe said, and it was delicious! My kids and hubby all rave about it and want to eat it again. It is time consuming (especially for someone like me who does not enjoy cooking) but the time put into this one is worth every minute for the final result.
Veggies (eggplant, zucchini, potatoes) need to be doubled to fit a 9×13 dish. Everything else is the correct amount.
This recipe is so off it is ridiculous! None of the ingredient amounts were right. How can so many people give this recipe high marks when adjustments must be made regarding every ingredient? You would be better off finding a more authentic recipe and removing the meat. Just because the results are tasty does not mean this is a good recipe.
This recipe took a lot of work, but the end result was phenomenal! I followed other reviews and roasted all of the vegetables. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
This turned out pretty well. It was two layers in a 9×13 pan rather than three, but it was enough. I roasted the veggies instead of sautéing, per someone’s suggestion, which took a while but served the purpose of getting them soft, although there wasn’t much left of my eggplant when it was done. I used a can of black beans instead of lentils, and that worked well. I was going for gluten free and dairy free, so I left out all the cheese and made the sauce with almond milk (2c), almond flour (4Tb), and olive oil (2Tb), which mostly worked. It was didn’t thicken much until I added the egg. BTW, if you’re going vegetarian, notice you have an EGG in here. I added nutmeg and cinnamon to the sauce, and that worked. The dish got good reviews at a church dinner, but it was a lot of work.
Delicious! A lovely vegetarian alternative. I follwed the suggestions of other reviewers and doubled up on the vegetables so there would enough for the multiple layers. Instead of pan-frying the veggies and potatoes, I also brushed them with oil and baked/broiled them in the oven until lightly browned. I will definitely make it again, but next time I may even double up on the white sauce. Thanks for a great recipe!
The dish was fantastic, tasty, flavorful, and satisfying. But the recipe needs work. I used a 12-inch pan and frying the eggplant and zucchini took forever, 3 batches for each veggy. That’s 36 minutes at best just for the eggplant and zucchini plus the potatoes and onions. One eggplant and one zucchini were not enough. Double them, slice them lengthwise, and char on a hot cast iron grill pan.
This was an adventure and marathon in cooking! Too bad I did not read the reviews and roast my veggies rather than pan-fry. Took soooo long! When using dried lentils, cook 3/4 cup of lentils in 1.5 cups of water, add a bit of salt and simmer for 25 -30 minutes. I found the water was all evaporated, the lentils were tender, and I did not need extra water to make a lovely, lasagna-like moussaka! Next time I will double the bechamel sauce, since I would have liked it to be more than a 1/8 inch deep. Use the best quality tomato sauce you can find, homemade if you can! I think it would be terrific with mushrooms added!
This was excellent!! I made this for our Labor Day celebration and had 2 other couples to share with us. I followed the recipe (pretty much), but cooked my own lentils, used a 28oz can of chopped tomatoes (with the juice). I used allspice, added an extra half of zucchini. The flavors were incredible! I’ve never made moussaka before, let alone a vegetarian version. I will make this again and again. Everyone was favorably impressed. I also roasted the veggies in my convection oven, with olive oil, rather than frying them. It IS a lengthy process, but so worth the effort. Even more delicious the next day! Thank you for sharing this gem!!