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Moroccan cuisine is one of the best reasons to travel to Morocco. It’s spiced but rarely hot, rich in vegetables, pulses and dried fruit, and it changes from region to region. Here are twelve dishes not to miss.
1. Tajine
Morocco’s signature dish takes its name from the clay pot with a conical lid in which it slowly cooks. The most common versions: chicken with preserved lemon and olives, beef with prunes and almonds, kefta (meatballs) with egg, and vegetables.
2. Couscous
Steamed semolina with vegetables and meat. Traditionally it’s eaten on Fridays, with family, after the midday prayer. If you’re invited, it’s an honour.
3. Harira
A soup of tomato, lentils, chickpeas and herbs. During Ramadan it’s the dish that breaks the fast, served with dates and chebakia.
4. Pastilla
A Fez speciality: a very thin pastry filled with pigeon or chicken, almonds and cinnamon, dusted with icing sugar. Sweet and savoury at the same time, it’s worth trying at least once.
5. Medfouna
It’s the desert’s ‘Berber pizza’, typical of Rissani: a large bread stuffed with meat, onions, egg and spices, baked under the sand or in a clay oven. We try it during our excursions to Rissani.
6. Tanjia
Marrakech’s dish: beef cooked for hours in a clay urn in the ashes of the hammam ovens. You’ll find it in the small restaurants around Jemaa el-Fna.
7. Zaalouk
A cooked salad of aubergine, tomato, garlic and cumin, eaten with bread. It’s one of the salads that open almost every meal.
8. Msemen and baghrir
The breakfast pancakes: msemen is flaky and square, baghrir is soft and full of holes. They’re eaten with honey and melted butter.
9. Grilled kefta
Spiced minced-meat balls with herbs, cooked over charcoal. You’ll find them everywhere, at markets and by the roadside.
10. Essaouira sardines
At Essaouira harbour you choose your fish at the stalls and they grill it in front of you: sardines, squid, sea bream. Simple and delicious.
11. Mint tea
More than a drink, a ritual of hospitality: green tea, fresh mint and lots of sugar, poured from high up to make it froth. Refusing it is almost rude.
12. Sweets
Almond gazelle horns, chebakia with honey and sesame, sellou with toasted flour: Moroccan sweets are small and very rich. Perfect with tea.
Want to learn to cook them?
In Merzouga you can join a Berber cooking class in a village home and then eat what you’ve made.
