Morocco
Moroccan cooking balances sweet and savory like nowhere else — slow tagines, the Friday couscous, a Ramadan soup, and the famous pastilla. Here are twenty of its most iconic dishes, grounded in Moroccan home cooks.
Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon & Olives
Morocco’s most famous tagine — chicken slow-braised in a saffron-and-ginger sauce, finished with briny preserved lemon and olives, often crowned with silky melted-onion daghmira.
Kefta Mkaouara
Morocco’s meatball tagine — tiny spiced beef or lamb meatballs poached in a rich cumin-and-paprika tomato sauce, often with eggs cracked over the top to set.
Mrouzia
The sweet Eid lamb tagine — lamb slow-cooked with ras el hanout, saffron and cinnamon until meltingly tender, then finished with honey, raisins and fried almonds into a glossy, jammy sauce.
Sardines Chermoula
Morocco’s national fish — fresh sardines butterflied and sandwiched around a garlicky chermoula of cilantro, cumin and paprika, then floured and fried crisp.
Couscous with Seven Vegetables
The Friday national dish — hand-steamed semolina mounded under meat and a rainbow of vegetables stewed in a ginger-and-turmeric broth, often topped with sweet tfaya.
Couscous Tfaya
Couscous crowned with tfaya — onions and raisins cooked down with honey and cinnamon into a sweet, jammy topping — over saffron chicken and chickpeas.
Seffa Medfouna
A sweet-and-savory celebration dish — saffron chicken ‘buried’ under a mound of steamed vermicelli dusted with cinnamon, powdered sugar and fried almonds.
Rfissa
Shredded msemen or day-old bread soaked in a fragrant chicken, lentil and fenugreek broth scented with ras el hanout — the classic dish for a new mother.
Harira
Morocco’s iconic soup — a hearty, herb-laden tomato broth thickened with lentils, chickpeas and a flour tedouira, spiced with ginger, pepper and a whisper of cinnamon. The soup that breaks the Ramadan fast.
Bessara
Northern Morocco’s dried fava bean soup — split favas simmered soft with garlic and puréed smooth, then served under a pool of olive oil, cumin and paprika.
Pastilla
Morocco’s showstopper — a crackling-thin pastry pie layering spiced shredded chicken, caramelized onion, scrambled egg and cinnamon-sugar almonds, dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon.
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.
Taktouka
A cooked salad of grilled green peppers and tomato, simmered down with garlic, cumin and paprika into a soft, smoky, scoopable dish.
Msemen
The everyday breakfast and tea-time staple — a square, flaky, laminated griddle bread folded letter-style with butter and semolina, eaten with honey and butter.
Harcha
A semolina griddle bread with a crisp, sandy crust and soft crumb — like a Moroccan cornbread, pan-cooked and split for cheese, honey and butter.
Batbout
Morocco’s stovetop pocket bread — a soft, semolina-rich dough that puffs into a hollow pita right in a dry skillet, no oven needed.
Chebakia
Ramadan’s sesame flower cookies — spiced, orange-blossom-scented dough folded into rosettes, fried crisp, then bathed in warm honey and showered with sesame.
Sellou
A no-bake toasted-flour sweet — deeply browned flour, ground fried almonds and toasted sesame bound with butter and honey into a rich, sandy mound dusted with sugar.
Ghriba Bahla
A crumbly Moroccan shortbread with a cracked, crackled top — sandy and rich with butter, oil and toasted sesame, made to melt apart at the first bite.
Atay
Morocco’s national drink and welcome — gunpowder green tea steeped with fresh spearmint and plenty of sugar, poured from a height to raise a foam.
Middle Eastern home cooking, organized by country. Your family’s version is the one that counts.