Aubergine | Riham's Messy Kitchen!

I hope I’m not stepping on a hornets nest here! But yup, we Egyptians consider moussaka “mesa2a3a” an Egyptian, not a Greek dish! I guess with the historic mingling of Greeks and Egyptians and that we both are Mediterranean many of our dishes are similar like our Mahshy or Wara2 3enab which is their Dolmades & stuffed vine leaves.

Well back to the moussaka…there are differences between Egyptian and Greek, oddly enough the Egyptian is lighter as we don’t include the potatoes and the beshamel sauce.

Mine is lighter still as I oven “grill” my aubergines and peppers as opposed to frying in oil.

Why grilled? Because it’s a lot lighter for one thing! Aubergines are like sponges and when fried in oil they really soak up a lot! So the grilled Moussaka doesn’t leave you feeling heavy and doesn’t need to be pushed to the side as an occasional meal. The only drawback is grilling in the oven takes more time than frying though I believe the results are worth it. And the taste, the critical component is still lovely.

The below nutrition profile includes 140gms of steamed basmati rice as a side. I know the 18gms of fat per serving looks much but that assumes you will use up all the oil in the recipe for the grilling. Using a pastry brush to lightly brush the aubergines & peppers usually means you won’t use it all. I also think its not too bad given its a main meal and overall calories are still low. In general the adult body needs between 20 to 35% of daily calories as fat translating to 44 to 78gms based on a 2000 cal/day diet or 25 to 43gms on a 1100 cal/day diet (mine 🙂 ).

And it still remains a hearty and warming dish for these cold cold days! Working in the kitchen with the oven on is a treat, for me at least 😉