🇲🇦 Morocco
Zaalouk
زعلوك · zaalouk
A beloved everyday cooked salad — smoky eggplant and tomato simmered with garlic, cumin, paprika and olive oil into a soft, scoopable dip. Eaten warm or cold with bread.
Serves ~4
Photo to come
Ingredients
- 2 large (or 3 medium) eggplants
- 2 tomatoes, peeled and seeded
- 6 garlic cloves
- ~2 tbsp each parsley and cilantro
- 1 tsp salt · 2 tsp paprika · 2 tsp cumin
- ~4 tbsp olive oil · optional cayenne or chili, lemon
Method
- Halve the eggplants and broil skin-up 20–25 minutes until charred and soft; scoop out the flesh.
- Cook the chopped tomatoes with the oil, garlic, herbs and spices 10–20 minutes to a rich sauce.
- Stir in the eggplant flesh, mashing; add optional lemon.
- Cook 5–10 minutes more (longer for a drier dip), chunky or pureed to taste; adjust seasoning and serve warm or cold with bread.
The family table
Almost everything is flexible — the tomato-to-eggplant ratio, the texture from chunky to smooth, and whether the eggplant is roasted, boiled or steamed. Adding a roasted pepper edges it toward its cousin taktouka.
Yumma
Middle Eastern home cooking, organized by country. Your family’s version is the one that counts. · info@yummarecipes.com