Vegetarian Moussaka on Walnut-mushroom-fennel Base with Parmesan Sauce

Summary

Ingredients

• 2 eggplant (s)
• 8 potato (s) roughly equivalent in weight to the eggplant
• olive oil
• 10 walnuts
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 7 mushrooms, brown
• 1 carrot (the red variety is particularly tasty)
• 0.5 ½ bell pepper (s), yellow
• 0.5 ½ bell pepper (s), red
• 1 small fennel
• 0.25 stick ¼ leek
• 2 onion (s), red or shallots in the same amount
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 tomato (s)
• 1 can tomato (s) in juice (skinned, whole tomatoes)
• 2 bay leaves
• 70 g butter
• 350 ml milk
• 2 tablespoon flour type 405 or 550
• 100 g hard cheese, freshly rated, rennet-free
• Nutmeg
• Paprika powder, hot as rose
• Chili powder
• salt
• Oregano, thyme and rosemary, dried
• 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 pinch (s) sugar
• 3 tablespoon breadcrumbs

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Instructions

1. Remove the walnuts from their shells the night before; soak in plenty of water with the soy sauce. The next day, drain the walnuts and throw away the soaking water. Drain the walnuts on kitchen paper; mince in the food processor until the consistency is almost mushy; small bits should be retained. Clean the fennel, mushrooms and carrots, peel the carrots and cut all three vegetables into small pieces; Also chop these very finely one after the other in the food processor.
2. Preheat the oven to 50 degrees. Line an oven rack with parchment paper; Spread the walnut mixture on top, as well as the mushroom, fennel and carrot mixture. Leave to dry in the oven for approx. 30 - 40 minutes.
3. In the meantime, cut the aubergines into 2 mm thick slices, season with salt and leave to rest for approx. 30 minutes. After this time, thoroughly dab off the resulting juice with kitchen paper.
4. Also peel, wash and cut the potatoes into 2 mm thick slices; Put the potato slices in a bowl filled with water so that the starch comes out.
5. Peel the onions and three cloves of garlic and cut into small, very fine cubes.
6. Clean the tomatoes, remove the stems and cut them into eighths. Clean the pepper halves, remove the stalk, cut into small cubes and set aside. Remove the outer leaves from the leek, cut once lengthways and cut both halves into thin slices.
7. Heat a pan with olive oil and fry the vegetable and nut mixture from the baking sheet in olive oil until everything takes on color. Add the garlic and onions and fry with them. Stir in the rosemary and oregano. Also add the leeks and peppers, then the eight-cut fresh tomatoes and finally the canned tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, chilli, paprika powder, cinnamon and a pinch of sugar, add bay leaves to the mixture, stir and reduce until there is hardly any liquid in the mixture. Then remove the bay leaves and season the mixture with salt, pepper and possibly other spices from the above and set aside.
8. Drain the potato slices and drain on paper towels.
9. Heat olive oil in a second pan, fry the dried aubergine slices in portions on each side for approx. 1 minute, then remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper. Then put the oil back into the pan, add the potato slices to the pan in portions so that they are not on top of each other; Fry on one side for approx. 5 minutes until they turn color, then turn and season with salt and pepper. When the potatoes are lightly brown on both sides, remove them and drain them on kitchen paper as well.
10. Melt the butter in another saucepan (watch out, butter turns brown quickly!) And sprinkle the flour into the butter, stir with a whisk and gradually add the milk, stirring constantly so that no lumps are formed. Bring to the boil, stirring, until a thick sauce is formed; Depending on the consistency, add milk and continue stirring, stir 3/4 of the parmesan into the sauce, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, possibly stir in a pinch of sugar here too.
11. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
12. Rub a wide baking dish with olive oil and the fourth clove of garlic. First put a layer of potatoes in the baking dish, then spread half of the vegetable and walnut mixture on the potatoes, layer the aubergines on top, then spread half of the Parmesan sauce on top, pour a tablespoon of the remaining cheese over the Parmesan sauce. Repeat the process once. Finally, sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the casserole. Put the casserole in the preheated oven and bake for 30-40 minutes.
13. Take the casserole out of the oven, let it rest for five minutes, then cut it and enjoy.