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Moroccan recipes

85 Moroccan recipes to cook at home, each with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Nous-nous (half-half coffee), takes 5 minutes. Most take around 60 minutes.

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Almond ghriba

Ghriba are the crinkle-topped cookies that fill Moroccan biscuit trays for Eid, weddings and guests dropping by for tea; the almond version, ghriba bel louz, is especially loved in Fez and Tétouan. The dough is just ground almonds, sugar, egg and lemon zest, rolled in icing sugar so the top cracks into white rivers as it bakes. They are naturally gluten free, crisp at the edge and soft and chewy inside. Chef's tip: take them out when the cracks have formed but the centres still feel soft; they firm up as they cool, and overbaked ghriba turn hard.

35 minMoroccanBakingGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sellou

Sellou (also called sfouf or zmita) is made in big batches across Morocco for Ramadan, for new mothers and for Eid, and is served in a mound beside mint tea. Flour is toasted slowly in a dry pan until it turns the colour of sand and smells like biscuits, then mixed with ground toasted almonds and sesame, anise, cinnamon, butter and honey. The result is a crumbly, nutty, not-too-sweet sweet that you eat by the spoonful, or press into balls. It keeps for weeks. Chef's tip: toast the flour patiently over a low heat and keep it moving; scorched flour tastes bitter and the whole batch is lost.

50 minMoroccanDesserts
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Vegetable briouats

Briouats are the small, crunchy pastry triangles served at Moroccan weddings and at the iftar table during Ramadan, especially in Rabat and Fez where women make hundreds ahead and freeze them. The wrapper is warqa, a paper-thin pastry, though filo works well at home. Savoury briouats are often filled with meat or seafood; this vegetarian filling of potato, carrot, peas, spices and cheese is popular in family kitchens and loved by children. Bake or fry them and serve hot with a dipping saucer of harissa. Chef's tip: let the filling cool completely before wrapping; hot filling makes the pastry soggy and it splits in the oven.

50 minMoroccanSnacks & Starters
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chicken tagine with preserved lemon & olives

Few dishes say Fez quite like djaj mqualli, the golden chicken that turns up at family lunches, weddings and Friday tables across the old medina. The chicken simmers slowly in its own juices with grated onion, ginger and saffron until the meat slips off the bone and the onions melt into a thick, glossy, yellow sauce. Salty-sour preserved lemon and bright green olives go in near the end, cutting through the richness. Mop it up with crusty bread, or spoon it over plain couscous for a weekday dinner. Chef's tip: grate the onion rather than chopping it; it dissolves completely and gives the sauce its body without any flour.

75 minMoroccanChickenGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Lamb tagine with prunes

Served at weddings, Eid gatherings and big family dinners in Fez and Marrakech, tagine lham bel barkouk is the sweet-and-savoury centrepiece Moroccans bring out for guests. Lamb shoulder braises slowly with saffron, ginger and cinnamon until it falls apart in a buttery-soft sauce, then it is crowned with glossy honeyed prunes, fried almonds and toasted sesame. Each mouthful moves from warm spice to deep fruit sweetness. Put it in the middle of the table with bread for scooping, or with couscous. Chef's tip: cook the prunes in a little of the sauce in a separate pan; poached apart, they stay whole and shiny instead of dissolving into the meat.

150 minMoroccanMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kefta tagine with eggs

Café kitchens from Tangier to Agadir keep a row of small clay tagines bubbling with this one at lunchtime, and plenty of Moroccan families make it on busy weeknights. Little cumin-and-paprika meatballs poach in a thick, garlicky tomato sauce, then eggs are cracked straight into the pan and left to set softly on top. You eat it straight from the pot, tearing bread to scoop up meat, sauce and runny yolk together. Serve with a plate of olives and a simple chopped salad. Chef's tip: roll the meatballs no bigger than a cherry tomato so they cook through in the sauce in the same time it takes to thicken.

45 minMoroccanMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Fish tagine with chermoula

Down at the harbour in Essaouira the fishermen's catch goes straight from the blue boats to the grills and the clay pots, and tagine hout is how home cooks there turn it into a meal. Firm white fish is coated in chermoula, the fresh green paste of coriander, garlic, cumin and lemon, then laid over slices of potato, tomato and pepper that soak up all its juices. The result is light and aromatic, with tender potatoes at the bottom and fish that flakes at a touch. A tomato and cucumber salad and some bread are all it needs. Chef's tip: lay the potatoes in a single tight layer so they lift the fish off the base and nothing catches.

50 minMoroccanFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Medfouna

Out on the edge of the Sahara around Rissani and Merzouga, medfouna means 'buried', because the stuffed bread was traditionally baked in hot sand next to a fire. Two rounds of soft yeast dough enclose a filling of spiced beef, lots of onion, parsley and a little fat, and the whole thing bakes into a golden, crusty pie that is cut into wedges like a pizza. It is road-trip food, market-day food and the meal desert guides cook for travellers, eaten hot with mint tea. Chef's tip: squeeze the chopped onion and drain the cooked filling well; dry filling means a crisp base instead of a soggy one.

120 minMoroccanBreads & Parathas
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chicken pastilla

No Fassi wedding or engagement feast is complete without bastila, a showpiece pie brought out as the first course and broken open at the table. Under its crackling layers of buttered pastry sit three fillings: shredded chicken cooked with saffron, ginger and onion, soft lemony eggs set in the reduced cooking juices, and crunchy almonds ground with sugar and cinnamon. The top is dusted with icing sugar and a lattice of cinnamon, so every bite is sweet, savoury, crisp and tender at once. Serve it hot with nothing more than a green salad. Chef's tip: make the fillings a day ahead and chill them; cold fillings are easier to layer and keep the pastry crisp.

150 minMoroccanChicken
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moroccan sardine balls

Safi and Essaouira are sardine country, and cooks along that Atlantic coast have always made the most of the cheap, silvery catch by turning it into kefta. Fresh fillets are chopped with chermoula herbs and spices into tender, rich fish balls, then simmered in a peppery tomato sauce until they soak up its flavour. They taste nothing like tinned fish: soft, savoury, a little lemony. Eat them from the pan with bread, or as part of a Friday spread of salads. Chef's tip: chill the mixture for 15 minutes before rolling; oily sardines firm up in the cold and the balls hold together in the sauce.

50 minMoroccanFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chickpea & sweet potato tagine

Sweet potato is not old Moroccan tradition, but today it is sold in every souk from Agadir to Meknes and turns up in modern home tagines alongside the classic chickpeas, dried apricots and ras el hanout. This version leans on the sweet-and-spiced style of Fez and Marrakech cooking: the sweet potato melts slightly into the sauce, the chickpeas keep their bite and a handful of apricots adds little pockets of tang. It is filling enough for a weekend lunch with couscous or bread, and it reheats beautifully the next day. Chef's tip: bloom the ras el hanout in the oil for 30 seconds before the liquid goes in; raw spice blends taste dusty, cooked ones taste round.

50 minMoroccanCurriesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Vegetable tagine (khodra)

Across Morocco, from village kitchens in the Atlas to family tables in Marrakech, a tagine of khodra (vegetables) is the everyday midweek pot, cooked on a low flame while bread bakes and set in the middle of the table for everyone to scoop up with khobz. The vegetables are stacked like a tent over a bed of onion and tomato, so they steam in their own juices rather than boil; the sauce left at the bottom is short, golden with saffron and turmeric and sharpened with preserved lemon and green olives. Serve it straight from the pot with warm bread and a bowl of carrot or tomato salad on the side. Chef's tip: lay the hardest vegetables (carrots, potatoes) closest to the heat at the bottom and the soft courgettes on top, or the courgettes collapse before the carrots are tender.

65 minMoroccanCurriesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Seven-vegetable couscous (bidaoui)

In Casablanca, Friday lunch after midday prayers means couscous bidaoui, the city's own version piled with seven vegetables, from pumpkin and turnip to cabbage and carrot. Families eat it from one great dish, each person working on their own corner of the mound, with extra broth ladled on as they go. The grains are steamed twice over the simmering broth so they swell into separate, fluffy beads that soak up the flavour without turning soggy. This vegetarian version builds the broth from onion, tomato, saffron and chickpeas, so it is rich enough without meat. Chef's tip: rub the couscous between your palms after each steaming to break up every clump; that is what makes it light.

90 minMoroccanRice & GrainsVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

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