Fasting béchamel
Food with bechamel such as pastitsio, moussakas or papoutsakia are often the Sunday food in the Greek Orthodox table. These foods are also in the Saints recipe, naturally adapted to the nutritional needs of the monks. Here is a monastic version of the classic bechamel without eggs in which the butter has been replaced with olive oil and the animal milk with vegetable. For the fasting bechamel we can use any vegetable milk we like such as almond, soy or coconut. See the recipe from monks and make a healthy and light bechamel without butter and margarine.
We heat the olive oil in a pan over low heat.
Then, slowly add the flour and mix continuously with a wire for 5 minutes until we have a homogeneous mixture and until the flour is cooked.
We heat the vegetable milk slightly and add it little by little into the pot without stopping to stir with the whisk.
We bring the bechamel to a boil and then lower the heat.
We add salt, pepper and nutmeg to our bechamel.
We continue mixing until the sauce thickens and acquires a creamy texture.
We adjust the salt if necessary.
Bechamel needs constant and very good mixing so that it does not lump and does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
In the evening that it makes lumps, we can pass it through a sieve before adding to it to our food.
If we don't have vegetable milk, bechamel can be made with vegetable stock. If we want an even leaner version, it can also be done with plain water.
