To me, Moroccan cuisine is one of the best in the world. The variety of dishes, ingredients, and spices creates an explosion of flavors! Although some foods may be heavier and not always easy to digest, I’ve grown up with the taste of Moroccan food and can’t get enough of it.
So, I want to introduce you to some of my favorites. Here are six must-try Moroccan dishes that every foodie should put on their list. Have a glimpse into a pork free cuisine, full of turmeric, ginger, and ras el hanouts—a hearty mixture of spices.
1. Couscous
Couscous is the Moroccan meal par excellence. Traditionally, couscous is mainly cooked for lunch on Fridays, when the Moroccan family gathers after a prayer at the mosque around the gasaa—a huge clay dish. Everyone eats from the same plate by using spoons or making little balls with their hands.
There are several variations of the couscous meal. First, you need to steam the couscous until it gets fluffy, and then you can make it either salty or sweet. One of the most popular ways of preparation is the so-called s’baa khdari—the seven vegetables recipe. This couscous dish consists of meat—chicken, lamb, or beef—accompanied by chickpeas and different vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, zucchini, cabbage, and daikon white radish.
Another very famous variation of couscous is the l’aaqda. It also has meat, but instead of vegetables, we add caramelised onions, raisins, and chickpeas. The onions go so well with the rest of the ingredients, giving a slightly sweet flavor to the salty mixture. In some regions of Morocco, this dish is mostly prepared for funerals, although there’s no official rule for when to make l’aaqda couscous.
The sweet version of the couscous dish can be served as a dessert. It has powdered sugar, cinnamon, smashed fried almonds, and raisins.
2. Tajine
What makes a meal “tajine” is the tajine pot itself! The tajine pot is made of clay and often beautifully decorated with different ornaments and colors. No matter what ingredients you put inside, as long as you prepare your meal in this pot, it’ll be called a tajine. Even if you only cook some eggs, they’ll still be a tajine.
Tajines are usually salty dishes, which most often consist of chicken or lamb meat and vegetables. The secret of their preparation is time. A tajine cooks for hours and hours on low heat and obtains its unique taste thanks to the pot itself. Nowadays, however, due to huge tourism demand and time restrictions, some restaurants cook the meal inside a pressure cooker and then put it into a tajine pot before serving it.
3. Roasted chicken with olives and lemon confit
I’ve tasted different kinds of chicken dishes around the world, but none tastes like the Moroccan djaj bdaghmira—roasted chicken with olives and lemon confit! This dish is so delicious that at Moroccan weddings, where usually two main courses are served, this meal always comes first. The second meal is meat with dried plums.
To prepare Moroccan roasted chicken, you first need to cook the whole chicken, together with some onions, garlic, parsley, coriander, lemon confit, and different spices—saffron, turmeric, and ginger. Little lemon confit slices are also used later to decorate the dish. Once the chicken is ready, it’s time to roast it in the oven, while the rest of the ingredients cook in the remaining broth until they turn into a thick sauce.
There are no popular variations of this meal, but you could put some french fries instead of olives over the chicken before serving it.
4. Harira
Morocco is not really famous for its soups, but if there’s one soup that you should try, it’s definitely harira. During the holy month of Ramadan, when the table is covered in all kinds of treats, the harira holds the most important place.
After breaking the fast by eating a date, the second thing Moroccans usually have is a bowl of harira. It’s best enjoyed with some chebakia, a pastry in the form of a rose, made of rolled strips of dough that are fried, covered with honey and rosewater and sprinkled with sesame.
Some might be sceptical about how filling a soup could be, but the harira will definitely satisfy your appetite. The main ingredients are chickpeas, tomatoes, celery, parsley, coriander, and a thickening mixture made of flour, water, and canned tomato paste. Just like other dishes, this Moroccan soup also has its variations. Ingredients may change depending on the geographical region or personal taste. You can try harira with lentils, rice or vermicelli, and little pieces of meat, mostly lamb or beef.
5. Tanjia
Tanjia is a speciality of the city of Marrakesh. Just like the tajine, tanjia takes its name from the pot in which it’s cooked. The tanjia pot is made of clay and looks like a Greek urn.
To make tanjia, you fill the pot with meat, mainly the softest part of beef or lamb, onion, garlic, spices, preserved lemon, some water, olive oil, and smen—a type of Moroccan salty, oily butter. As there are no other vegetables, you could add some baby potatoes, like they do in the region of Sefrou. Once the clay pot is filled and tightly closed with a paper lid on top, it should be left to cook for no less than five hours under the hot ashes of the nearest public hammam bath, as tradition demands.
There are no other versions of the tanjia and you can enjoy it anywhere in Marrakesh, from the small food stalls of Jamaa el-Fna to the most luxurious restaurants.
6. Bastila
There’s no real celebration without a bastila! Bastila is my all time favorite Moroccan dish. If you’re a fan of sweet and salty meals, then this one’s for you.
Bastila consists of phyllo dough and stuffing, made of cooked chicken or pigeon meat, creamy thick broth with eggs, and ground almonds mixed with sugar and cinnamon. Once out of the oven, the bastila is usually decorated with powdered sugar and cinnamon or honey and roasted tapered almonds. If you don’t like sweetness in your main dish, you can simply avoid adding cinnamon and sugar during the preparation and the decoration processes.
Instead of chicken, some people prefer to put seafood, such as calamari, shrimp and fish, and vermicelli. No sugar and cinnamon are used in this case.
The traditional bastila is served in one huge dish in the middle of the table, where everyone can reach and take a piece with their fingers. However, you can also make small individual portions.
Moroccan cuisine is so diverse that it’s hard to present it at once. Apart from the six dishes I mentioned above, we also have various pastries, breakfast treats, salads, and special Aid El Adha celebration meals. But if you’re new to this cuisine, make sure to start with these six dishes and believe me—you’ll become their number one fan!
Have you ever tried Moroccan food? What’s your favorite dish?
