Mouceleriaca

I had two courgettes in the bottom of my fridge, which I had bought almost two weeks ago and I felt guilty for not using them. The perfect recipe had to be courgette and lentil lasagne or mousaka, now the trouble was we had no potatoes and no lasagne. Then lurking in the bottom of the fridge was half a celeriac, which I can’t remember when I bought! Mousaka it was, with celeriac, so technically not a mousaka at all! Why don’t we call it Mouceleriaca? Here’s what I did:

Ingredients
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp olive oil
80g red lentils
2 medium courgettes, diced
600ml vegetable stock
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dried thyme
½ celeriac finely sliced
450ml soy milk
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp Vitalite
½ tsp grated nutmeg
50g toffuti garlic & herb ‘cheese’
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
2 slices bread made into breadcrumbs
salt & pepper to taste

Method
Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil (or vegetable stock if you’re a no fat kinda person). Add the chopped courgettes and red lentils and stir well. Add the soy sauce, vegetable stock, thyme and bring to the boil. Once boiling turn down the heat and simmer until the liquid has reduced and the lentils cooked, it can look quite mushy, but don’t panic it tastes divine. Whilst the lentils and courgettes are simmering make the white sauce, put the Vitalite, flour and soy milk into a saucepan and heat gently stirring all the time until thickened. If it’s not as thick as you like then mix together a bit of cornflour and water and add to the white sauce whilst stirring. Once the sauce has thickened add grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, nutritional yeast flakes and ‘cheese’. Pour the lentil & courgette mixture in a baking dish, top with the sliced celeriac, overlapping and then top with the white ‘cheese’ sauce. Let settle for a couple of minutes and then scatter the breadcrumbs on top. Put in oven and bake for 35-30 minutes or until breadcrumbs are golden brown.