Those familiar with Middle Eastern cuisine will find nothing surprising about the idea of a meatless moussaka – the versions found in Syria and Lebanon are a feast of tomatoes, aubergines and pulses, rich and silky with olive oil, and without a drop of bechamel in sight. Even in Greece, the 200-odd fasting days a year mandated by the Orthodox church mean that plant-based cuisine is more common than the casual visitor surviving on souvlaki and sea bass might imagine. The modern Greek moussaka, however, is a firmly meat-and-dairy affair, but thankfully for those who eschew animal products all year round, it doesn’t have to be.
