Slice the eggplant into thick pieces, about ½ inch. Place them on a paper towel and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Allow them to sit for about 10 minutes while preparing other parts of the recipe. This will help bring out some of the water.
After about 10 minutes, take eggplant pieces and wipe off any excess water with a paper towel. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and brush with oil or broth.
Put eggplant in the oven and broil. Start with 5 minutes on each side, keep checking and leave until golden brown. Mine was 8 minutes on the first side, and 5 on the second.
Make béchamel:
Make béchamel sauce by placing all ingredients into a blender and blending until nice and smooth.
Make “meat” sauce:
Sauté onion and garlic with the rest of the salt (1 teaspoon) and oil or splash of broth until brown.
You can choose to chop the cooked chickpeas and walnuts now instead of chopping the whole mixture after. Simple pulse in a food processor.
Add chickpeas, lentils and walnuts, sauté 1-2 minutes.
Add broth, fresh chopped tomatoes and parsley.
Cook partially covered for 20 minutes until the liquid is almost gone and beans are al dente. Then add the tomato sauce, wine and pepper. Stir and cook partially covered for another 5 minutes until most of the liquid is gone. Add more broth if needed.
Allow it to cool a bit, then if you haven't pulsed the chickpeas and walnuts already, put the whole mixture into a food processor and pulse to make it a chunky ground meat like texture. This is optional, if you prefer to leave it whole, that’s fine too. Just take note that if you don’t pulse the mixture a bit the texture will not be as meaty.
Put the moussaka together:
Brush bottom of a 9 x 12 dish with a drizzle of oil or broth.
Put ¼ cup breadcrumbs on the bottom to coat it and help prevent burning.
Line the dish with half of the eggplant pieces.
Sprinkle with ¼ of the parmesan.
Top with the “meat” mixture.
Sprinkle ¼ cup breadcrumbs on top.
Sprinkle with ¼ of the parmesan.
Place half of the eggplant pieces on top.
Sprinkle with ¼ of the parmesan.
Pour the béchamel over it.
Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs.
Sprinkle the top with the last ¼ of the parmesan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is brown. Make sure not to overbake or it will dry out. Allow it to cool so it can thicken and settle.
Devour your hard work!
Notes
You can also use dried chickpeas, make sure to soak them overnight. I found the canned cooked chickpeas gave a slightly better texture.
If you prefer not to use wine, then add veggie broth in place of it, although the red wine gives it a great flavor.
You can make breadcrumbs if you prefer homemade. Toast 2 pieces of bread until crisp, then blend in a food processor.
If you are not using a high speed blender you can either soak the cashews overnight or grind them into a fine powder using a coffee grinder.
You can use regular black pepper in place of white pepper in both parts of this recipe, the white allows the béchamel to look smooth without any black spots in it.
If you hate eggplant, you could also sub potatoes for the eggplant, or even zucchini. Just make sure to cut the zucchini thick and salt it as it has a lot of water.
Tips to prep ahead:
Soak chickpeas if using dried. You can make the “meat” mixture, béchamel and parmesan before the day you put it together to make it go must faster day of.
Baby/toddler food idea:
Great baby and toddler food. Make sure you pulse the “meat” mixture well so that there are no large pieces of walnuts left. You may also want to skin the eggplant as the skin can sometimes be tough for young ones to eat.