A couple of neat tricks and cheats make this Easy Lamb Moussaka quick and simple to make – but no less tasty! Make it with lamb mince or use your roast lamb leftovers.
This year I’ve teamed up with the ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ campaign to share my love of lamb and to bring you lots of delicious and easy lamb recipes.
Of all the traditional lamb recipes, Moussaka is one of my absolute favourites – I just can’t get enough of it. But to make an authentic moussaka takes quite a bit of time and faff and, whilst lovely, is definitely not a quick and easy midweek meal option!
My Easy Lamb Moussaka, on the other hand, is quick, involves very little effort, and with just a couple of little cheats and shortcuts, you can have a totally delicious moussaka on your table in well under 45 minutes, making it do-able on all but the busiest of evenings.
So how have I done it? Well first, I’ve kept things really simple: this moussaka only focuses on what I consider the absolute essentials – aubergines, lamb and a simple cheese sauce – no courgettes, potatoes etc.
Secondly, I’ve cooked the aubergines under the grill, rather than in a frying pan, which does two things – it speeds everything up, as all the aubergine slices fit under the grill – meaning you don’t have to cook the aubergines in batches, as you would in a pan, and it means you don’t need to be so hands on – meaning you can use the time the aubergines are grilling to prepare the lamb sauce. As an extra bonus, grilling the aubergines also uses a lot less oil!
The next thing I’ve done is a little cheat with the cheese sauce – normally in a moussaka, the cheese sauce is a kind of béchamel enriched with an egg – I’ve cheated and used crème fraîche with cheese sprinkled on top – it is super quick to do, saves on washing up AND is super tasty.
And finally – to speed things up even more, I’ve made sure everything is well cooked before going in the oven, so all the moussaka needs is a quick blast in the oven at a very high temperature to brown the top and it’s done.
For this recipe I have used lamb mince, however you can easily use some leftover roast lamb, if you happen to have any…simply chop up the lamb leftovers into small pieces and add them into the pan at the same time as you would add in the mince, and continue as normal – a very tasty way to use up your leftovers!
Personally, I think this moussaka is perfect with just a big green salad, or if you have a little more time, a delicious Greek salad, but if you need a few extra carbs in your life, this dish would be lovely with a big chunk of crusty bread to mop up all the sauce.
A Rioja Crianza would be a great wine match for this moussaka, as would a Côtes du Rhone – a Sangiovese or Nero D’Avola would go fabulously too. Alternatively, if you are feeling adventurous, why not try a Greek red wine?
Easy Lamb Moussaka
Ingredients
- 2 medium aubergines sliced into 1cm (½ inch) thick rounds
- 4 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
- 2 red onions diced
- 500 g lamb mince (or leftover roast lamb, cut into bitesize pieces)
- 3 cloves garlic crushed or grated
- 1 teaspoons cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 300 ml crème fraiche
- 100 g cheddar or other hard cheese, grated
Instructions
- Preheat your grill to medium high.
- Lay the aubergine slices on the grill rack and brush with oil, turn the slices over and brush with more oil (roughly 2 tablespoons oil in total on the aubergines). Grill for about 5 minutes on each side or until nicely browned.
- As soon as the aubergines are ready, preheat your oven to 220C / 200C / gas mark 7 / 425F. (You can do this a little earlier if you have a separate grill and oven).
- While the aubergine slices are grilling, prepare your filling: place the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and onions in a wide, deep pan and cook on low for 5 minutes, until the onions are soft but not brown. Turn the heat up and add in the lamb mince cook for 3 minutes then turn the heat down again and add the garlic, cumin and cinnamon and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. (If using leftover lamb, add the lamb in at the same time as the garlic and spices.)
- Add in the chopped tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until thick.
- When the lamb sauce and aubergines are ready, layer up your moussaka: first put half the lamb sauce in the base of a casserole dish or cast iron pan, next add a layer of aubergines, then the rest of the sauce, then the rest of the aubergines. Finally spoon over the crème fraiche and then sprinkle over the cheese. Place in your preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is browned.
- Serve with a green salad or Greek salad and crusty bread, if you wish.
Notes
This is a collaborative post with the ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ campaign. ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ is an EU funded campaign which aims to increase the use of lamb in everyday cooking. Lamb is often considered difficult to cook, expensive, or something to be saved for Sunday roasts. The aim of the campaign is to demonstrate just how tasty, easy and fun lamb is to cook with every day of the week!
Love Lamb? Check out my collection of Easy & Delicious Lamb Recipes
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Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food says
Your cheats are not only speedy, they sound totally delicious! I absolutely love your idea of grilling the aubergine. All that being said, I’ve never made Moussaka for some reason—this recipe gives me just the kick in the posterior that I needed. It’s on my To-Make list!
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Michelle – I’ve never been a fan of cheats that make a dish taste worse – got to be as good as, or better!! Can’t believe you’ve never made moussaka – you’ve got to do it!! Let me know how it goes if you try it 😀 Eb x
Annette, 3 Little Buttons says
Oh yum! That looks fab. I LOVE moussaka, but have never got round to giving it a try as making the sauce really scares me off. I hadn’t thought of using crème fraiche! #BrillBlogPosts
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Annette, totally agree with you – moussaka is lovely, but made the traditional way is a bit fiddly and time consuming. My version is neither of those things – the creme fraiche tastes fab on top of this and makes this much more doable on a busy evening! Eb x
Mel says
I love it when people share their hacks to make a painfully slow recipe a lot quicker. Your Moussaka looks absolutely delicious! Thanks for joining in with #FreeFromFridays.
Eb Gargano says
Haha – yes, a proper authentic Moussaka is a lovely thing, but as you say, very slow and labour intensive AND uses a lot of pots and pans. I absolutely love taking a total classic like this and putting my easy peasy spin on it! Still tasty, but now quick and easy too, and much less washing up – yey! Eb x
Corina says
This sounds delicious! Moussaka is one of those things that I avoided for years because my mum used to make it with lots of potatoes and probably not much aubergine. Some of the potatoes always seemed to be a bit undercooked and at the time I hated lamb so it was definitely not a meal I rushed to try or eat after I left home. Eventually I discovered it didn’t have to have potatoes in and that I loved lamb and now it is one of my favourite dishes! Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice x
Eb Gargano says
Haha – funnily enough I have the opposite story – it was my mum who first got me into moussaka. I was veggie in my teens and Mum, one day, surprised me by creating a really lovely Quorn moussaka for me…I loved it so much (and still do) and it was actually one of the first recipes I blogged on this website (don’t look the photos are awful, though the recipe is very good!) This is my meaty take on that same recipe, really – but with a few extra little tweaks to make it even easier! Eb x
Louise Fairweather says
I haven’t made moussaka in ages – must give this a go. Looks amazing.
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Louise, it’s so lovely – and really easy peasy, of course! Eb x
Mandy says
This looks amazing! I absolutely love the cheesy topping of moussaka – YUM!
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Mandy! 😀
TurksWhoEat says
I’m really loving all of your lamb recipes! I’ll definitely need to try this.
Eb Gargano says
Thanks!! I do love lamb so much – I have a lot of fun dreaming up all these lovely lamb dishes 😀 Eb x
Chloe says
Oh Eb this looks incredible #freefromfridays
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Chloe! 😀 Xx
Susan says
I’ve just finished preparing a traditional Moussaka and WOW was that time consuming. This recipe looks FAB and I will be trying your version the next time! Thanks.
Eb Gargano says
Oh my goodness it really is, isn’t it? That’s why I created this recipe – I wanted to enjoy all that delicious Moussaka flavour without all the effort! Hope you enjoy my version. Eb 🙂
Vee says
I absolutely love you!! I’m making this tonight!! x
Eb Gargano says
Haha – thanks Vee. I hope it went well! Eb 🙂
Andrew Petrie says
You will think this a silly question but after cooking the lamb do you drain off the fat ?
Eb Gargano says
There’s no such thing as a silly question! Actually that’s a very good question. Personally I don’t as the fat has a lot of the flavour, but you absolutely can if you would prefer a slightly less fatty dish / you want to reduce the calories and/or you want a slightly less ‘strong’ lamb flavour. Hope that helps… and do pop back and let me now how you got on! Eb 🙂
Jen says
This tasted lovely but mine came out all watery and the creme fraiche leaked into the sauce, making it a white watery sauce ?. The flavour was good though.
Eb Gargano says
Oh no! I am sorry to hear that. And how strange – that has never happened to me… Did you use full fat creme fraiche? I am wondering if perhaps you used low fat creme fraiche… that could explain it, maybe? Anyway, I’m very glad to hear it still tasted good! Eb 🙂
JanD says
I haven’t made moussaka for years – tried this recipe – absolutely delicious!
It definitely won’t be so long till I make it again.
Thanks for sharing.
Eb Gargano says
Aw yay! I am so happy to hear that. Thank you so much for letting me know… and especially for the 5* review! Eb 🙂