♪ ♪ [Diane Kochilas] Today, we're talking vegan.

So much Greek food is naturally vegan, but there's also a huge trend afoot in Athens and beyond to reinvent Greek classics in a vegan version.

Today in the kitchen, I'll be making a Vegan Moussaka.

This is a Moussaka for even the most diehard meat lovers.

And then cooking with Nikos Gaitanos, one of Athens' top vegan chefs.

We will make two Greek comforting classics, Vegan Yiouvarlakia.

That's amazing.

[Nikos Gaitanos] It's good, eh?

[Diane] And Galaktoboureko.

It tastes just like Galaktoboureko, but even better actually.

Join me on My Greek Table as I explore Greek vegan deliciousness.

(upbeat music) [Announcer] My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

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The National Hellenic Society And by the following... ♪ ♪ [Diane] All one needs to do is walk past the neighborhood farmer's market, or even simply visit any supermarket or grocer to see firsthand the wealth, variety, and quality of produce grown in Greece.

The Mediterranean climate of temperate winters and plenty of sunshine is most conducive to growing delicious fruits and vegetables.

It stands to reason that so much Greek food is traditionally and naturally plant based.

Indeed, there are probably more plant-based recipes in the Greek kitchen than in any other Mediterranean cuisine.

Greeks are essentially accidental vegans for a good part of the year.

In the traditional Greek diet, the mother of the Mediterranean diet, meat was eaten sparingly.

Because it was expensive, it was often reserved only for festive occasions.

It was only the post-war generations that began to embrace a much more Western diet.

Despite the historical place, vegetables, legumes, grains and of course, olive oil have always played in the Greek diet.

To most Greeks today, the idea of veganism is well, a new one.

(horn honks) But times are changing, contemporary trends have caught up with this most traditional food society.

And to be vegan nowadays is to be woke.

Of course, there's a Greek spin to this global trend and it's a delicious one.

Greek vegan cooking barely contains anything processed.

And a lot of it is about reinventing the classics to be both vegan and natural, like true denizens of the Mediterranean, real food made with seasonal ingredients and a creative mindset.

♪ ♪ Moussaka is one of the most iconic dishes in all of Greek cuisine.

Today I'm making a vegan version of this Greek classic, and I promise even the most diehard carnivores will love it.

Let's get started.

For my base, I'm using sweet potatoes.

Oftentimes in the classic Moussaka we use potatoes as the base before we start adding the eggplant and the meat sauce.

I changed it up a little bit today and I'm using sweet potato, which is a little bit lighter and gives a nice sweetness.

(chopping) I'm gonna get these onto the sheet pan and into the oven.

Gonna get a little bit of olive oil brushed over these.

A little salt.

And these are going right into the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 or 20 minutes just to soften them.

We don't really want much color on this.

The eggplant's next.

You want these to be fairly thin, but also thick enough to hold up to the baking.

I'm gonna get these onto the sheet pan.

A little bit of olive oil and a little bit of salt.

These are going right into the oven.

The whole basis of Moussaka is this rich meat sauce, which I'm replicating today by using black beans and chickpeas.

We're gonna start with the onions.

You want to cook this until the onion is translucent.

(sizzling) A little bit of garlic.

The black beans go in next.

I like to use black beans in recreating this Moussaka for vegans because it comes as close as possible to the texture of the ground meat and the color a little bit too.

And the chickpeas go in at this point too.

Tomatoes next.

And I've just got some chopped canned tomatoes here.

I'm using some tomato paste and that will help thicken this up.

A little bit of red wine next.

And now all of the typical spices and herbs that I would use in a classic Moussaka sauce.

Cinnamon stick.

Bay leaves.

And allspice berries.

A little bit of dried Greek oregano.

Balsamic vinegar.

An ingredient I love to use in a lot of my red sauces, Petimezi, which is grape molasses, just to add a little underlying sweetness to this.

A little bit of that flaky Greek sea salt, and some black pepper.

Smells really good.

The sauce has been simmering for about 15 minutes or so.

It's really thick, but I'm gonna mash some of the beans just to replicate that texture of ground meat a little bit.

I'm ready for the next step, which is making the bechamel.

And this is really interesting because I'm using something called aquafaba, which is basically the liquid from the canned chickpeas.

It whips up exactly like egg whites.

We're gonna use that to make the bechamel really fluffy.

(whirring of beaters) We want these beautiful stiff peaks, just like meringue.

Time to make the bechamel, the classic topping on any Moussaka.

We're gonna start with olive oil... and flour... to make the roux.

And we want to cook this until the flour is not so raw anymore.

We don't want that pasty flour flavor.

And it's time to add our two milks.

I'm using coconut milk and almond milk.

(soft scraping) And the almond milk next.

This is already starting to thicken up.

A little salt.

A little bit of white pepper.

And a little bit of ground nutmeg.

Time to add the aquafaba, the meringue from the chickpea liquid.

And this will make the bechamel a little bit creamier, and it will also help it rise since we're not using eggs.

I'm ready to assemble our Vegan Moussaka, olive oil in the bottom of the pan.

So we always add a little bread crumb so that the sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, if that's what you're using, don't stick to the pan as this bakes.

We start with a layer of sweet potatoes.

Next, we layer the eggplant.

Now it's time to layer the bean sauce over this.

I'm just gonna top this now in alternating rows of eggplant and sweet potato, it looks really pretty.

Now it's time to spread that beautiful bechamel over the top.

This is really thick and luscious, and it adds that sating quality to this.

I'm gonna sprinkle some breadcrumb over the top, and that's gonna turn a beautiful golden color.

This is ready for the oven.

I'm gonna bake it at 375 for about 45 to 50 minutes.

♪ ♪ Oh, that is gorgeous!

Mm.

This is a Moussaka for even the most diehard meat lovers.

It is so substantial.

It's so rich.

The black beans are so earthy and all of these beautiful spices, the cinnamon, the nutmeg, the allspice, it's all coming through.

But for me, what holds this whole thing together beautifully and makes it really, really satisfying is this creamy bechamel.

This Vegan Moussaka calls for a big Greek red, Xinomavro from Naoussa.

That is a Mediterranean climate in Northern Greece, about an hour and a half from Thessaloniki.

Mm.

That's really well structured.

This wine ages beautifully, and it's a perfect match for rich dishes like this.

Eis ygeian.

I didn't just pull the idea of a Vegan Moussaka out of thin air.

I first sampled it and was inspired by a version cooked at Lotos, a vegan restaurant in Piraeus.

Hi Nikos.

[Nikos Gaitanos] Hello, Diane.

How are you?

[Diane] I'm fine.

How are you?

[Nikos Gaitanos] I'm fine.

I'm fine too.

[Diane] Where Nikos Gaitanos is consulting chef.

Nikos has been on the forefront of vegan Greek cooking for more than a decade.

This is quite a feast.

[laughter] Moussaka, burger, this is a bean burger or plant-based burger?

[Nikos] Yes, bean burger.

[Diane] Brownie.

This is the carbonara with mushrooms.

I'm curious to taste the carbonara.

How did you get the, this creamy texture in the carbonara?

[Nikos] We have cream from lentils.

You can make also whipped cream with that.

[Diane] It's good.

[Nikos] Taste nice, yeah?

[Diane] It's very good.

Is there aquafaba in here?

[Nikos] No, no, no.

No aquafaba, no aquafaba.

[Diane] No aquafaba.

-Yamas.

[Nikos] plant milk.

[Diane] Cheers.

[Nikos] Cheers.

[Diane] I'm back in the kitchen with my friend Nikos.

Today, you're gonna show me a couple of vegan recipes using traditional Greek ideas, but with a twist that's totally plant based.

The first one is what we call Yiouvarlakia in Greek, which is usually a ground meat and rice dish cooked in a delicious lemony avgolemono sauce, the egg lemon sauce.

But tell me, Nikos- [Nikos] We replace the eggs with avocados.

[Diane] With avocado.

I'm really looking forward to learning how to do that.

What do we have here?

[Nikos] We have mushrooms, the normal white mushrooms.

[Diane] Plain button mushrooms.

[Nikos] Yes.

And some olive oil.

Also, we're gonna add thyme, fresh or dry.

Now we need to bake it at 180 degrees, about 20 minutes.

[Diane] So 180 is 360 Fahrenheit.

[Nikos] What we want is to take out most of the water of the mushrooms.

To become uhh crunchy on the outside, but tender on the inside.

[Diane] Okay.

[Nikos] Now we have to make the soup.

[Diane] Okay.

[Nikos] First we cut the vegetables.

(chopping) [Diane] Now what?

[Nikos] Now, first we heat the oil.

[Diane] So does the onion go in first?

[Nikos] Yes.

[Diane] And they stay in cubes, we want the soup to have cubes.

[Nikos] Yes yes yeah.

Stay in cubes.

Now, I think I will add my celery too.

[Diane] What is the biggest surprise to you as a vegan chef?

[Nikos] It changed here in Greece, it's amazing.

2015, there was just two vegan restaurants in Athens.

Now it's more than 35.

[Diane] There are 35 vegan restaurants in Athens?

[Nikos] Yes.

[Diane] Wow.

It's easy to be vegan in a country that has amazing produce.

I like to call Greeks accidental vegans because we don't even realize how much vegan food there is in the cuisine.

[Nikos] Now it's time for the wine.

We need some time for the alcohol to evaporate.

[Diane] To cook off.

Are we about ready to add the water?

[Nikos] Yes.

Now we add the water.

Put just enough to cover our vegetables.

Now we have to lower the heat and cover and leave it to cook.

[Diane] While this cooks, shall we check on the mushrooms?

[Nikos] Yeah.

[Diane] Okay.

That looks and smells really good.

I love mushrooms.

[Nikos] As you can see, there's no more water.

So what I need to do first, I need to cut them a little bit, smaller pieces.

[Diane] Okay.

(chopping) [Nikos] Now, our rice.

I have cooked it already.

[Diane] It's totally cooked.

[Nikos] Yes.

[Diane] Okay.

[Nikos] I will need my glove because it's a dirty job but somebody has to do it.

Little bit of flour, but not too much because if you put too much, you can taste the flour after.

[Diane] This is the mixture you're gonna shape.

[Nikos] Yes.

[Diane] And this mixture, you drop into the soup?

[Nikos] No, because if you drop it into the soup it goes... [Diane] Oh, it goes... [laughter] [Nikos] You understand me?

[Diane] So what do you have to do first?

[Nikos] I will bake them to show that they become hard on the outside.

[Diane] This can go into the oven?

[Nikos] Yes.

About 15 minutes.

[Diane] And at what temperature?

[Nikos] 180.

[Diane] 180.

So 360 or so, Fahrenheit.

[Diane] Nikos, is the soup ready?

[Nikos] Let's check.

Oh yes, of course.

[Diane] Yes, of course.

Now what do we do?

[Nikos] Now, it's time to make our avocado lemon sauce.

It's very easy.

We start with the avocados.

♪ ♪ Juice of two lemons.

And then I will go to my soup.

[Diane] Ah, you're gonna add a little of the hot broth.

[Nikos] Yes, of the juice.

The starch from the potatoes.

It will help my- [Diane] I see.

[Nikos] Sauce become thicker.

[Diane] And this gets puréed.

[soft whirring] [Diane] This goes in here?

[Nikos] Yes.

We're gonna cook it in low heat with the lid on for two or three minutes.

[Nikos] They are ready.

Now we need to leave them for 10 minutes to set, because if they are too hot, they will fall off inside the soup.

They go... You are learning.

[Diane] A universal Greek word.

Oh, that looks amazing.

[Nikos] Dill in, always put the herbs last, so they keep all the flavor.

[Diane] Yeah.

[Nikos] And now it's time for the Yiouvarlakia to dip in.

I put the lid back on, leave it for five minutes and then we serve.

[Diane] And we do that so that everything kind of blends together.

[Nikos] Yes.

[Diane] This looks really awesome.

(laughs) Okay.

Mm.

Mmm.

That's amazing.

[Nikos] It's good, eh?

[Diane] Yeah.

It's really lemony, but really earthy because of those beautiful mushrooms and the rice obviously binds it all together, but it's really comforting too.

So this is exactly the feeling and the sensation you get when you try the original, authentic Greek Yaya's Yiouvarlakia with ground meat and rice and avgolemono.

I love it.

And I thought about how to marry this with wine.

And I've got a rosé from Argos, which is a combination of Moschofilero, which is a white wine varietal and- [Nikos] Thank you.

[Diane] Agiorghitiko, which is a red wine varietal and the two together balance each other really well.

Yamas.

[Nikos] Cheers.

Yamas.

[Diane] This works really nicely with this dish.

[Nikos] Mm.

[Diane] Yamas.

[Nikos] I want a little bit more, I think.

[Diane] There are more than 37 vegan restaurants in Athens.

Some are nothing more than casual food stalls, specializing in a couple of different things.

Others, like Lotos and Veganaki are full service restaurants where the focus is on Greek, traditional and vegan.

It's a fascinating blend.

♪ ♪ Okay, Nikos, show me how to make the vegan rendition of Galaktoboureko.

[Nikos] First of all, we need to make a syrup.

[Diane] Okay.

[Nikos] Because it needs to be very cold by the time we put it in our... [Diane] So we make it first.

[Nikos] Yes.

Two cups of water.

After water, we need to add the sugar.

I use brown sugar.

[Diane] Why are you using brown sugar?

[Nikos] Have a more rich flavor.

[Diane] Ah, okay.

[Nikos] Then we go for the spices.

I have dry coriander, dried ginger.

[Diane] And this is cardamom?

[Nikos] This is cardamom.

And at the end we add some lime juice.

And now we need to boil it for about 10 minutes until it starts thickening.

[Diane] I learned this as a kid, you always add cold syrup to hot pastries.

[Nikos] Yes, of course.

That's why we start with the syrup.

[Diane] Okay.

[Nikos] Okay.

So we leave it to boil.

[Diane] Okay.

[Nikos] Now it's time to make our custard.

We need to work with a melon.

We cut it in half.

So, we take out the seeds, then we remove the skin.

[Diane] I can put this in the blender?

[Nikos] Of course.

[Diane] What goes in next?

[Nikos] The milk, the almond milk.

(soft whirring) [Diane] Now, what am I doing in here?

[Nikos] You put three quarters in the pot.

Okay, now we boil it.

[Diane] And I pour the rest in here?

[Nikos] Yes.

[Nikos] Now we put in our Semolina.

[Diane] Okay.

[Nikos] Now, I whisk, you pour the mixture inside.

Now we need it to start boiling.

When it starts boiling, it's ready.

[Diane] Oh, that's it?

[Nikos] That's it.

[Diane] Okay.

It looks like we're ready to put this together.

[Nikos] Yes, now it's the fun part.

First of all, we need olive oil.

We spread it across a pan.

[Diane] So now what do we do?

[Nikos] We fold it in the middle.

[Diane] I fold it.

Okay.

[Nikos] Yes.

And we put it in.

Olive oil again.

And now we want to make a nest.

[Diane] You brush, I'll fold.

[Nikos] I brush, yes exactly.

Now it's ready for our custard.

[Diane] And now we make the rim.

[Nikos] Yes, but I think that's a little bit too big, so cut it a little bit.

[Diane] And we do that because if there's too much hanging over it doesn't cook, right?

It doesn't bake.

[Nikos] Exactly.

[Diane] So now when we make this, we want to cover the edges, right?

[Nikos] Yes, yes, yes.

Like that.

How do you do that- that done before?

[laughs] A few times.

We cut it.

[Diane] And we're gonna put sesame seeds on top.

[Nikos] Just a little bit for the taste.

[Diane] So now we bake this.

[Nikos] Yes, in a preheated oven, 180 degrees.

[Diane] Which is 360 Fahrenheit.

[Nikos] Yes.

[Together] Okay.

[Nikos] About 25 to 30 minutes, depends to the oven.

[Diane] Okay.

[Diane] Wow.

[Nikos] Be careful it's hot.

[Diane] That looks amazing.

What is the next step?

[Nikos] We put in the syrup.

[Nikos] Okay.

Can we cut this now?

[Nikos] No, we need to wait about an hour because you cut it out, if you cut it now it will fall apart.

[Diane] You wait for all good things, right?

[Nikos] Exactly, that's it.

[laughs] ♪ ♪ [Diane] Wow.

It looks just like Galaktoboureko.

[Nikos] Yes.

It tastes even better, you see.

[Diane] Shall we?

[Nikos] Let the games begin.

[Diane] I am really curious to taste this.

Mm.

[Nikos] It's still hot.

[Diane] Wow.

Wow Nikos, this is amazing.

I can really get the melon, that's the strongest thing for me, but also the almond milk, all the spices and the syrup are coming out.

Especially the cardamom's coming out really, really strong.

It's really delicious.

It tastes just like Galaktoboureko but even better, actually.

[Nikos] Yes.

It's exactly like I wanted.

[Diane] Great.

I really learned from you today.

I love plant-based cooking.

There's so much great plant-based cooking in Greece.

I want to thank you for coming.

[Nikos] Thank you so much for inviting me.

[Diane] And for sharing your recipes with us.

[Nikos] Thank you, thank you very much.

[Diane] Greece is a naturally vegan country because we have so many great plant-based dishes and now we even have some great plant-based desserts.

For recipe links and information about My Greek Table , visit my website, DianeKochilas.com.

Diane's cookbook's "My Greek Table" and "Ikaria" are available to purchase online at DianeKochilas.com Or call the phone number on the screen.

[Announcer] My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society And by the following... ♪ ♪