Recipe: Vegetable moussaka

Taken from 'Rick Stein At Home'

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 aubergine sliced lengthways

3 courgettes sliced lengthways

olive oil

2 large potatoes sliced lengthways

100g red lentils / 200g cooked puy lentils

2 small onions chopped

1 red pepper chopped

2 garlic cloves chopped

50g tomato paste

4 large tomatoes chopped

1 cinammon stick

Bechamel sauce (note - we just did a white sauce, left out the egg)

100ml butter

100g plain flour

750ml whole milk

3 eggs

1 tsp grated nutmeg

150g cheese

Begin by salting the aubergine and courgette slices and leaving them for about 30 mins. Rinse and dry on kitchen paper. Fry in plenty of oil over a medium heat until lightly browned and starting to soften, then drain on kitchen paper and set aside. Fry the potatoes in the same way. If using red lentils, cook according to pack instructions.

In separate pan, heat about 70ml of the oil and fry the onions, red pepper and garlic for 5 mins until softened. Stir in tomato paste and cook or about 5 mins. Add chopped tomatoes and cinammon stick, then season. Simmer for another 5 mins. Throw in the cooked lentils and simmer or 5 mins, then remove cinammon stick.

In a deep overnproof dish (approx 24 x 35cm), arrange the potatoes in a single layer, and top with a third of the lentil sauce. Add the slices of aubergine, cover with another third of the sauce, then the courgettes and finish with lentil sauce.

Preheat the oven to 220 deg C / Fan 200. Now make the bechamel sauce. Melt the butter in a pan over gentle heat, stir in the flour and cook for 2 mins, so the flour loses its raw taste. Slowly incorporate the milk and continue stirring till the sauce thickens. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the eggs, nutmeg and 100g of the grated cheese.

Spread the bechamel over the layered lentils and vegetables and topd with the remaining cheese. Bake for 30 mins, then take dish out and leave to cool. Fab served the next day tooo, warmed through not piping hot.