Moussaka - How One Of Greece's Most Traditional Dishes Is Made

If you've ever been to Greece, you've likely sampled the most Greek of all dishes - moussaka! It’s traditionally made with eggplant, potatoes, ground beef, and béchamel sauce. A cornerstone of Greek cuisine, it’s as popular with visitors as it is with the locals.
-----
Report: Theodora Mavropoulos
Camera & Edit: Raphael Kominis
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to DW Food:
bit.ly/DWFood_Sub
DW Food brings you the perfect blend of culinary trends, easy DIY recipes, exciting food secrets & a look behind the scenes of Europe’s culinary culture.

[@williamhornabrook8081]

Most Greek food is like healthy salads, but then they have this absolutely killer casserole. One of my absolute favourites. The eggplant + cheese + meat combo is just savoury heaven.

[@rgjerde53]

I use to work in Chicago, where we had great Greek restaurants. Moussaka was one of my favorites. I live in Tennessee now, which has great food too, but not easy to find Greek food (other than the occasional gyros). I'm hoping someone opens a good Greek restaurant here in Knoxville -- if not, I'll have to wait until I get back to visit Chicago.

[@freudvibes10]

Hi from Albania. That's an amazing dish, when cooked properly. I followed the steps, according an old recipe, and it was a dream. It takes much love, time, and there are some secrets someone understands while cooking it itself. Better than most of the representative dishes I have ever tried. I feel kind of proud that I prepared a perfect moussaka. 🙂❤️

[@dinos9607]

Be proud, it is not the easiest dish to prepare. Your Albanian intuition has certainly helped you to get it since the first time.

[@freudvibes10]

​@dinos9607 thank you Dinos, I appreciate it....😎

[@Khsjsj]

Share the secrets please

[@THEBIGMEOW]

I love it ❤️ He even pulls the scraps into it.

[@jpg_sig10]

The first time I ever ate Moussaka was during my wife's and my three-week honeymoon in Greece, over 30 years ago. We were on a ten-day tour of the Peloponnese, on a lunch stop in Sparta at the time. It was a fantastic dish. We loved it. Unfortunately, these days we can't find a restaurant anywhere here in the southwestern United States that makes good Moussaka - just finding Moussaka in this culinary wasteland is hard enough. We'll have to go back to Greece.

[@Porn05Mouth]

I came here looking for the recipe after eating it in Athens, and OMG, this is the restaurant where I first had it! What luck!

[@user-kd7cb4sj8m]

This is the tastiest best flavor of food I have ever tasted. My best friends mother is from Greece and the first time I tasted this I couldn't get enough. I even dream about this dish...❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊

[@dagothex]

My fav dish of all time ☺️❤️

[@sachsgs2509]

The authentic recipe had the eggplants and the meat sauce on top. It was the classic mousaka from Μικρα Ασια very old Greek recipe. Over the years potatoes were added to the dish and when bechamel was introduced from France to the region it was added to the top to create the mousaka we know and love today. One of my favorite Greek dishes 👌👌👌🇬🇷💙

[@HONORTONUMERIC123]

Yup...

[@aokiaoki4238]

This is Nikolaos Tselementes Mousakas

[@Mauesi]

@@aokiaoki4238 exactly

[@user-eu5nx4ek9u]

It is an Ottoman cuisine well documented

[@msx94]

Hmmm bechamel is a European invention​@@user-eu5nx4ek9u

[@albertnash888]

I love Greek cuisine! Moussaka is one of my favorite dishes! I have got to dine at this restaurant when I visit Athens!

[@user-eu5nx4ek9u]

90 percent of greeze cuisine is Turkish or Ottoman

[@Wessel3453]

I ate at this restaurant! Last month with my b-day! It was amazing!

[@JapieEister]

That's great I'll try it myself

[@redjones8010]

Greece has some seriously fine cuisine. Moussaka is utterly superb.

[@user-eu5nx4ek9u]

It is Ottoman Turkish cuisine not greeze

[@MusicismoreImportant]

​@@user-eu5nx4ek9uboth countries influenced each other

[@Over9.k]

@@user-eu5nx4ek9uMan these jealous Turks under every Greece Video Greek cuisine is one of the best . If you havent been to Athens do it

[@Wessel3453]

@@user-eu5nx4ek9uThis dish is from France, Turks do not have bechamelsaus 😂

[@johnperrry215]

Good God that is lovely¡

[@betacam235]

I was taught this recipé many years ago by a half Greek-half Scottish girl.she said the trickiest part is the bechemel based sauce, and that done properly it should have the consistency of blancmange, ie it should be self supporting even when deep. I thought she used yoghurt in it but I may be wrong.....anyone else heard this?

[@Wessel3453]

Can you please add numbers to this recipe? How much gram of beef? Potatoes? How much tomato purée? Etc. With what did he season the eggplants?

[@wideawake5630]

One of my favorite dishes as a Detroit kid. Now I make it for Easter but mine is vegan.

[@dinos9607]

Hi, Greek here. For God's shake moussaka is not a traditional dish. It was indeed based on a traditional recipe but the dish commonly known as moussaka was a "nouveau cuisine", a fusion cuisine recipe of the early 20th century, invented by a world-acclaimed Greek chef and cuisine author, Nikolaos Tselementes. Tselementes had studied in France and was a lover of the French cuisine. Influenced by the French recipe Hachis Parmentier he introduced bechamel (a non-existing recipe-item in original traditional Greek cuisine - neither creme is used, almost non-existent as well) and combined it with an aubergines dish called "moussaka" more akin to the recipe known as "papoutsakia" (or in Minor Asia as "imam baildi" in turkish) to eventually produce "moussaka". And I think in the same line it was him who invented "pastitsio". Since Tselementes was the first Greek chef to write books, his recipes became best sellers and every single housewife had at least one of his books inside so that by post-war, these recipes were popularised all over the country to the point that when tourism hit hard in Greece in the 1960s tourists thought these were "traditional Greek recipes". Since tourists liked these recipes, Greeks offered them in restaurants and thus it somehow stuck that "moussaka" and "pastitsio" are traditional Greek recipes. They are not. They are "fusion cuisine" rather than traditional Greek one. Yet they are nice recipes, if you have the time and patience to do them, certainly not for novices.

[@seaeagle8976]

Very helpful, thanks. I suspected that these were not traditional.

[@justinasbei]

Define "traditional". By your thinking every generation of children are stuck in parents shoes unable to creatively re-invent their own identity. Appreciate your knowledge though.

[@dinos9607]

@@justinasbei I don't disagree that tradition can be revisited and re-interpreted. Above I used the term "traditional" in the sense that the recipe had to be more than a 100 years old. Indeed there was a pre-existing "moussaka" yet one without bechamel and cheese and potatoes - this one was more akin to "papoutsakia" (i.e. aubergines with minced meat). What I wanted to highlight above was that the moussaka as we know it is a 100 years old recipe which started off as a novelty, as a fusion cuisine between Greek and French cuisine, the inspiration of a French-trained renown Greek nasterchef, Nikolaos Tselementes By all means, since Tselementes' recipe was loved so much by Greeks, same also for the similar looking "pastitsio" (pasta with minced meat and bechamel and cheese), they were embraced by Greek housewives and within a century they became "traditional" as well. So yes, in a way you can view them as traditional today, no problem with that. 1900s fusion cuisine can be viewed today as traditional, why not!

[@thehoneyeffect]

🤓 I now have an MA in moussaka 👍🏽

[@seaeagle8976]

@dinos9607- I’d be grateful if you could recommend a good cookbook of traditional Greek dishes in English

[@primate90]

We have moussaka in Turkey as well but for some reason Greek version is more deliciousssss

[@HONORTONUMERIC123]

Whichever version comes first it always looks authentic and tasty..... But regarding some varieties from particular standard dishes taken from the first version can be made more delicious by adding particular spices(grounded) and particular cheeses(grated) ....

[@leonardonetagamer]

Based

[@TurquazCannabiz]

Biz besamel sosu kullanmiyoruz, ondan

[@sahtesarisinmuzaffer]

Bechamel sauce balances the bitter taste of eggplant and enhances umami taste in the dish. That's why.

[@SL-sd3sg]

Love this dish, I’ve made it often but use lamb mince 🇬🇧

[@DWFood]

Sounds great!

[@pennychurchward1481]

I also. Since my childhood I have been making it with lamb and I prefer it. Beef tastes too much like lasagne. I also use nutmeg

[@AsNatureIntended13]

Minced lamb sounds like straight up from a Horror movie. Keep those poor animals off your place. I use brown lentils instead.

[@lovehope4822]

Im curious on spice variations and possibly cheese variants

[@wideawake5630]

I put vegan feta into the bechamel recipe as well as a little nutmeg. I do the potato base, then eggplant, I put Syrian allspice in the "meat" layer which, for me is a chunky marinara with lots of pignolis then a spinach layer, then tapenade.repeat... Top with bechamel.

[@rochditidjani]

This is not a step by step way to make a traditional Moussaka. This is just an overall way to show how this traditional dish is made.

[@roysenpai6279]

المسقعه هي طبق عربي وسميت بهذا الأسم لأنه يمكن اكلها وهي بارده ايضا طبعا تختلف عن هذه النسخة لأنها لا تحتوي على صلصة الباشاميل وشكرا ❤️

[@kimimaex]

My french ass was chocked with that olive oil base bechamel but I forgive him as he explained why 🤣

[@user-dz1rc4wk2t]

What could we substitute the eggplant for?

[@chlopgotuje]

Łaciate polish milk is staing on the table (left) Good point!!!

[@hyacinthe7]

I like to add white and black sesame on top of the bechamel before putting the mousaka in the oven.

[@invisiblecurious856]

I always think this is a greece lasagna, lowkey.

[@DWFood]

We're sure you're not the first to say such a thing

[@invisiblecurious856]

@@DWFood you bet

[@HONORTONUMERIC123]

@@invisiblecurious856 yeah...

[@victorha9923]

pastitsio usually gets that moniker

[@nillyk5671]

But healthier

[@sherrytitus5345]

Could you supply recipe as to amounts of flour, oil, etc for bechamel sauce. I would like to replace potatoes with turnips as it fits better in my diabetes diet. Thanks for approximate recipe.

[@DWFood]

Sure, here is one: 30 grams butter, 30 grams all-purpose flour, 240 milliliters milk - Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste! Using turnips as a replacement sounds interesting!

[@sherrytitus5345]

Thanks for your reply. The recipe was a dream, used eggplant and turnips. Also put some lamb in with the ground beef. Thank you so much for the video.

[@AsNatureIntended13]

I've cooked it veganized and healthyfied and the dish is truly amazing.

[@dinos9607]

Greek cuisine though certainly not vegan at all, has nonetheless a very large number of vegan recipes which are delicious. Try the pumpkin "meat"-balls (kolokuthokeftedes)... they are literally a drug that should be banned. When mum makes a mountain of them, it is levelled to zero in no time. Your meat loving friends who snob vegan recipes will love them, just tell them "it is a traditional old recipe" for them to overcome the anti-vegan snobbism and try them. I am a carnivore, so I should know better if some vegan recipes such as this one are superb.

[@zg3746]

​@@dinos9607Also vegan gemista are soo good

[@seaeagle8976]

ugghh

[@shyamsundarrajan2469]

Seeing the diplated partheon in Athens makes me want to see Athens at it's classical splendor

[@abdullaha4678]

Anybody knows what’s the resturant’s name?

[@stefanrichter4825]

Basically, most restaurants on and around Plakka serve excellent moussaka

[@TimothyClarksonJr]

Moussaka actually is an Ottoman dish. However it is originally Arabic. The name is even arabic. Yes there are Balkan ( Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc. ), Turkish, Lebanese and Syrian versions.

[@Mauesi]

Partially yes, the Greek Moussaka by the greek chef Nikolaos Tselementes from the 1920´differs from the Ottoman/Arabic which is of course based on. He added the Potatoes, the Bechamel and changed the minced beef to more to the Italian recipe of Ragout alla Bolognese

[@user-qp2fi1tf1x]

So what does mousaka mean in Turkish?😂😂😂😂

[@User-vz4xm]

Arabs can’t let Greeks have their land nor their dish. Gotta take everything from them

[@serges8234]

Wtf you talking about. I'm lebanese and I guarantee you no Syrian or lebanese know clue about this recipe. Moussaka's not an Arabic word

[@user-eu5nx4ek9u]

It is not greeze cuisine but Ottoman

[@pedromacias4075]

for the bechamel did he put butter and olive oil only but it looks white.?

[@sopihadown8511]

Can you supply the recipe please.

[@hardminder]

did the narrator say ''it's time to blanch the bechamel'' ? How is it possible that it got aspproved and made it all to way here? It'S a cookin channel for christ's sakes. Mind-boggling.

[@rosannemassman4560]

Wishing the correct amount of ingredients & directions were included in this post.

[@FlavioBelisario5822]

ALL HAIL GREEK!♥

[@blotski]

eggplant 🇺🇸 🇳🇿 🇨🇦 aubergine 🇬🇧 🇮🇪

[@SandraJane-bd8im]

I am wondering why if tou fry the potatoes why you wouldn't fry the sliced aubergine ina little olive oil too? 🤔

[@DWFood]

Perhaps the eggplants would then be "sealed" by the oil and could not absorb the aroma of the Sauce - just a guess...

[@Lividbuffalo]

The way the narrator says his name😂

[@heidismith8970]

Where is the recipe for the sauce?

[@taniadim.p.5305]

This version of mussaka is very delicious. For those who belive moussaka is not Greek, you are right. Turks/ Otomans come to Thracia and balkans after 1400 year, when there was no potatoes,tomatos, corn e.t. The potato's comes after 1596-1600 probably later from Inkas in south America, eggplant come from China in 8-12 AD to Balkans, introduced by Arabs. But the Greeks made this delicious recepies grom all that ingredients. I personally don't use eggplant in mussaka.

[@user-eu5nx4ek9u]

When Turks came to Asia minor Greeks were slaves of Romans.

[@afandou1966]

3:22 Yeah, ok, and the potatoes were deep fried in unknown vegetable oil. Oh, and use zucchini over the meat. That is from the botton of the pan, potatoes, egplant, meat zucchini, bechamel sauce.

[@jiwarindu6690]

Mouzakka means MAKING IT COLD in Arabic. It is Arabian food. CMIIW

[@samuelbird5255]

We need robot moussaka.

[@chonkymonster671]

Is it pronounced 'MOU' ssaka, mou 'SSA' ka, or moussa 'KA' ?

[@blotski]

Most English speakers say mouSSAka but in Greek it's the last syllable that has the stress = moussaKA.

[@recoswell]

any place where the olive oil is kept in a gallon pitcher I MUST EAT AT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@lamaaltawil437]

moussaka is originally arabic and comes from the levant even the word moussaka is arabic

[@liqiz1755]

Yeah moussaka it’s Arabic origin, nice to hear.

[@lthandle]

The sound editing is very annoying. Constantly cutting out and resuming high energy, multi layered instrumental songs. So bad I have to mute the video half way to see how its made!

[@thecooldude4371]

Hello

[@r.s.2525]

Lebanese dish, mousakkaa in Lebanese means cold. A dish served cold an never heated after it cools down. Greeks. added a western twist on it. Mediterranean cuisine doeant have bechamel on it and cheese on top, the real Mediterranean cuisine.

[@panama-canada]

Looks like a shepherd pie to me

[@LV-426...]

Looks like a more sophisticated Lasagna. I'd definitely like to try it.

[@nawalr8362]

Tha most important part in this recipe is the sauce but he did not show us how to make it or how much ingredient to use therefore I will not use it

[@denizliberal]

It is Turkish -- like swedish meatballs and German Doner --- TURKISH.

[@adriancalin8688]

Lasati balta bunica facea musaka formidabila la Bucarest

[@BeatrizVilcachavez-mx9sk]

Com

[@MrBluexmas]

ORIENTAL?

[@leonardvoltes6180]

😅😅

[@mitchferrer3147]

Greece? While Turkey and Greece have made Moussaka globally famous, they are the not the nations who introduced this dish. According to the Greeks, this dish was introduced by the Arabs when they brought the aubergine.

[@lovehope4822]

It is a Greek dish by now.

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

This only shows the ingredients, Without a published recipe it's worthless. The best moussaka I ever had was at a little restaurant on Santorini, then 2nd on Mykonos. I also had it on Rhoads.

[@Tztimelord]

Fun fact greeks of course learnt musakka from Turks but in this case of food theft, something interesting had happened. Nikólaos Tselementés, a greek chef who was heavily inspired by french cuisine puts bechamel sauce on top in 1920. Voila... you have greek national dish which of course has ottoman cuisine roots with french influence. Fyi real musakka is just eggplants with tomato sauce. And it is very delicious.

[@kristaps5296]

Fun fact, 🦃 stole this food from the Arabs.

[@frankward8336]

I think a 100-year old recipe qualifies as 'traditional' But NEVER put potatoes in a mousakka.

[@donq2957]

Best food Greeks eat and it is probably a Persian recipe. We invented Baba Ghanuj.

[@comet315]

Real traditional.moussakas has only 3 parts - aubergine, mince and bechamel. No potatoes, courgettes, carrots etc which are used by most restaurants as cheap fillers/substitutes.

[@user-qp2fi1tf1x]

If mousaka is greek or Turkish what does it mean in both languages? 🤣🤣

[@mojorojo4474]

In hindi it means uncle’s

[@neggy2926]

Basically cottage pie with eggplant

[@andrejohnson6731]

This recipe is less than 100 years old… 😂

[@panagiotispapadakos392]

i want to see the raged Turks saying "yOu STolE oUr FoOD!"

[@user-eu5nx4ek9u]

Former slave Greeks steal everything they can. The country originated from debt lives in debt and steels everything around and from their former masters

[@shyamsundarrajan2469]

That's not bechamel sauce at all

[@rosey5554]

I wish these people could pronounce Greek words lol

[@tassosdavakis6078]

Φίλε μάγειρα , ο παραδοσιακός μουσακάς γίνεται ΜΟΝΟ με μελιτζάνες ,χωρίς πατάτες !!

[@user-se1ii5qs7z]

Ανάλογα της περιοχές Στην Ήπειρο είναι και με τα δύο

[@metaxist]

η πόντια γιαγιά μου τηγανίζει τις πατάτες και τις μελιτζάνες και δεν βάζει τόσο χυμό ντομάτας στον κιμά , πολύ βαρύ φαγητό δεύτερο πιάτο δεν τρώς

[@erdemozcan5435]

In Türkiye, we make this dish only with eggplant and a sauce similar to bolognese sauce, and we do not add béchamel sauce or cheese.

[@findyourself3946]

It loolks Italiano Lasagne🤔

[@kaycey7361]

Every good food came from asia. Europe cant make good food without asian influences

[@sissypissyrapper23]

Super interesting, but that robotic narrator is frankly awful

[@GreenfileNoWaste]

agree 100%, the narrator is awful.

[@thekingdomguards7481]

It’s basically Arabic dish . Love to Greece 🇬🇷

[@CherryFlower24]

well no, it's greek

[@furkanyldrm5604]

@@CherryFlower24 no its not. you can easily see on wikipedia. and most of your food is ottoman or arabic because of the colonization

[@CherryFlower24]

@@furkanyldrm5604 And we all come from Africa, yet we don't call a chinese an african lmao

[@hyacinthe7]

The name of the dish may be Arabic in terms of etymology, but the way we make it is 100% Greek. If you go to Jordan or any other Levantine country and ask for mousaka, they will not give you what we make in Greece. Similar ingredients, but different dish. And this is common for many other specialities as well -- Greece, the Balkans, the Levant, all were once under Ottoman rule, there were no borders, and so the cultural exchange, which includes food, was endless.

[@gio7799]

Since when has bechamel sauce an Arabic origin? You can find mince meat all over Mediterranean countries and fried aubergine too, so for me, it's a Greek recipe.

[@user-qp2fi1tf1x]

Mousaka is an Egyptian dish not greek even the name is egyptian

[@SSCHS7]

Bulgarian version is better

[@stefanrichter4825]

That is?

[@Usarda]

It's 'Musakka' and it's a Turkish food

[@stelios5314]

Its called "moussaka" because that's the translation from Greek. The video shows Greek Moussaka, which is a different version from the Turkish one. Of course, it was based of the original Turkish/Arab recipe, but it has potatoes and bechamel that Turkish Musakka dont have. Musakka is an older, but different version of moussaka

[@nihil_hd1598]

Its an arabic food

[@Usarda]

@@stelios5314 Greek ppl takes all our foods and changes its name and they are claims like it's their own food. So I declined that.

[@stelios5314]

@@Usarda I just said that half of the recipe of moussaka is changed, (by the Greek chef Tselementes). What truly remains the same is the eggplants and the name. (I should add that the recipe for the meat has also changed a bit) Greeks also have a famous dish called Pastitsio. It has spagetti inside, but I havent seen any Italian complaining about that. Considering mousaka, its a significantly different version than the Arabic one. You cant claim the recipe, but just the idea (once its based on Arabic musakka. And generally, Greeks were under Ottoman rule for 4 centuries. Dont expect that their cuisine wont have been influenced by Ottoman dishes. Its common sense. Also it can be claimed that musakka is actually an Arabic food. So why dont you say that Turks "stole" it from the Arabs? At least Greeks radically changed the recipe retaining eggplants as the main element.

[@Usarda]

@@stelios5314 but greeks do that about everything and they arr adding "ki" just the end of its name. Baklava-ki dolma-ki. And they are trying to claim them. They are trying to claim döner, yoğurt and lots of things too

[@haythamabdel-qader6934]

its not greek

[@shanepasha6501]

The Bechamel part is Greek. The whole set up of the dish has evolved through the ages. In the early 20th century, Chef Nikalaos Tslementes, a Greek Chef that was trained in France, came up with the idea of adding the Bechamel sauce on top. And that is what made this dish so delicious (not to take anything away from previous recipes.) Bon Appetit!

[@aokiaoki4238]

It's all Greek, Turkish muousaka is 🗑

[@MyCatLovesRAKI]

greece copying turkeys every dish

[@nihil_hd1598]

And u cipy it from arabs and persians

[@blotski]

Wеll, when Turkey tried to conquer everywhere establishing the Ottoman Empire it's not surprising you left some recipes behind. They didn't copy them. You brought them and left them behind.

[@nn-cy2il]

It is Turkish dishes

[@berfunkle4588]

The Turks occupied Greece for 300 years. They could have stolen the recipe from the Greeks long ago and not tell anyone.

[@nn-cy2il]

@@berfunkle4588 I wouldn't say that the Greeks cook badly because that would be a lie. All I want is to be fair. If they are Greeks, I agree to say them. But if you say dolmades instead of dolma, I can't accept it.

[@gilpaubelid3780]

​@@nn-cy2ilIt's a Greek dish based on an Arabic one. The arabic one was just aubergines and some kind of meat and it was served cold (that's where the name came from). In other words it was a completely different dish than the greek one. Dolmades is just the plural form of Dolmas (singular).

[@user-eu5nx4ek9u]

The word is Arabic. When Turks came to Anatolia you were shiet eater slave of romans