This is a delicious traditional Bulgarian dish. If you love ground beef and potatoes – that is the meal for you!
Potatoes are healthy starchy vegetables. They are a great source of potassium, fiber, and vitamin C. Usually people think they are unhealthy because they are told – “watch those French fries” or “watch those potato chips”. However, the issue is not in the potatoes itself, but what we do to them. If we boil them, bake them, include them in meals as an ingredient, potatoes are very healthy options.
If we deep fry them with oil rich in trans fats, then they are not healthy. The french fries and potato chips we buy from the store are unhealthy because of what we do to process the potatoes – frying them. When potatoes are fried then we might be eating lots of unhealthy trans fats, salt, and they also can have an increased amount of acrylamide. Acrylamide is a known mutagen, carcinogen and neurotoxin. Since acrylamide is not healthy, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is studying how eating foods high in acrylamide affects our body. Even if we bake the potatoes and then load them with butter, sour cream and other fatty ingredients, they become unhealthy. On our website, we will publish many potato recipes that are healthy and rich in nutrients. We encourage you to include potatoes in your diet as a healthy nutrient and cook them in a healthy way. Our moussaka/mysaka recipe is an example of a healthy recipe made from potatoes.
Moussaka or Mysaka
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef lean
- 6 potatoes
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 tomato
- 1 onion
- 1 teaspoon himalayan pink salt
- 1 tablespoon ground paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon savory
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt fat free/reduced fat
Optional
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon dry parsley
Instructions
Prep
- Wash hands with soap and water. Check out our article about how to wash hands properly
- Gather all ingredients
- Gently rub produce under cold running water. Scrub firm produce with a clean vegetable brush under running water.
- Peel and cut the potatoes into half an inch cubes
- Chop onion, tomatoes, and bell pepper (I usually do that step while the ground beef is being cooked to save time)
- Chop tomatoes (or while cooking to save time)
- Chop peppers (or while cooking to save time)
- Chop the optional ingredients as applicable: fresh parsley and garlic
Cook
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
- In a skillet, add the ground beef. Cook until evenly browned. Drain the grease if any.
- While the ground beef is cooking, chop the onion, tomato, and bell pepper.
- Add the chopped onion and simmer for 1-2 minutes. If you are using garlic as the optional ingredient, now is the time to add it in (along with the onion)
- Season the ground beef with paprika, salt, ground black pepper and savory. If you are using dried parsley as the optional ingredient, now is the time to add it in.
- Add the chopped tomato and bell peppers and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the potato cubes and simmer for 1-2 minutes. If you are using fresh parsley, now is the time to add it in.
- Pour all the mixture from the skillet into a baking dish (casserole). Spread evenly.
- Add warm water to barely cover the mixture. About 600 ml.
- Bake for 45 mins or until the water boils off and the potatoes are done. My family likes the potatoes well done, so I let the dish bake for an hour.
Dressing
- Beat 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of plain yogurt.
- After the dish bakes for 45 minutes or longer and the potatoes are done to your likeness, pour the dressing on top of the dish and evenly distribute on the top. Broil for 7-10 minutes until a brownish crust is formed on the top of your dish.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- It is important for the baking dish to be for casseroles and not for baking breads or cakes.
- Skip the dressing to make it a dairy free dish
- Enjoy the Mysaka with some additional yogurt on top of the dish when served
- We also eat the dish with chopped fresh garlic on the side
- We are extremely excited to announce we are now using the saferecipeguide.org guidelines to make our recipe safe-friendly. We will slowly be incorporating the safe recipe guidelines into our recipe instructions!
Nutrition
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