In this article, we will explore what to eat in Morocco. We will describe our favorite dishes and what we recommend eating, including main dishes, soups, tagines, desserts, and even drinks.
Eating in Morocco is a fascinating experience. We discovered new ingredients and flavors. Although Moroccan cuisine is not well-known worldwide, there are plenty of foods to try. There is an incredible amount of tagines, couscous, a traditional Moroccan dish, and a wide variety of sweets.
Come with us to explore what to eat in Morocco and its traditional dishes!
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What you should know about Moroccan food
In Morocco, food is synonymous with family and celebration; it is a way of expressing traditions. Lunch is the day’s main meal; everyone gathers around the dish, serves themselves, and generally eats with their hands. Bread is a constant presence in every meal and is vital for eating and enjoying the tagine sauces.
Morocco’s cuisine combines Berber, Arab, Andalusian, and French influences. There is a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, especially in Northern Morocco. As in all other countries in the world, typical dishes vary depending on the region and the ingredients available. The coast of Morocco is rich in fish and seafood, while the interior region is more influenced by the Berbers.
Morocco is a Muslim country, so pork or alcoholic beverages are not consumed. There are exceptions in some hotels and bars that sell alcoholic drinks to tourists. The food is generally halal. And during Ramadan, many restaurants are closed, or opening hours change.
There are many restaurants in Morocco, especially in the main cities. But it is said that the best food is homemade, which is generally prepared by women. Many restaurants serve a set menu with a starter, main course, dessert, and mint tea. It’s a good option if you want a complete meal. Bread and olives are usually offered in restaurants.
Spices are an essential part of Moroccan cuisine. They use a lot of cumin, turmeric, paprika, saffron, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Despite all the spices, very little salt is used, at least by our standards.
If you are vegetarian, Morocco can be a bit challenging, as even a supposedly vegetarian dish can contain meat. You can only be sure that the dish is vegetarian if no meat is on the menu.
Endeavor to try as many different dishes as possible. Sometimes, it seems like there are only tagines in Morocco, but note that tagines are very different from each other; they use distinct ingredients and sauces.
Moroccan food ingredients
Moroccan cuisine features some unique cooking methods and ingredients. It also has some ingredients and spices that, despite being common in any cuisine, are used abundantly to provide distinct flavors.
Important ingredients in Moroccan cuisine:
- Ras el hanout is a mixture prepared with 20 different spices. Each store has its own recipe, which is always different.
- Orange flower water – is used in preparing salads and in almost all desserts
- Argan oil is produced from the fruit of the Argania tree, which is endemic to Morocco. The oil is used to spread bread or pies, season salads, and couscous and is widely used in cosmetics.
- Amlou is a sweet almond, honey, and argan oil paste that is used as a spread on bread or desserts. This delicious paste revolutionizes every dish.
- Olives—In Morocco, olives are often used to prepare dishes or as starters. They are very good, slightly acidic, and have a strong flavor.
- Cumin is a spice widely used in Morocco; almost all dishes contain it—even salads.
Typical Dishes in Morocco
Breakfast
Breakfast is the meal we like most in Morocco. It was surprising, but breakfasts in Morocco are delicious. They have a wide variety of bread, tea or coffee, orange juice, delicious honey, amlou (sweet almond and argan oil paste), omelets, and different sweet pastries. They’re really good. Make the most of it by eating the traditional Moroccan breakfast.
A few things we recommend you eat in Morocco for breakfast:
- Orange juice
- mint tea
- Msemmen with amlou and/or honey
- Beghrir with butter and/or honey
- Berber omelet
- Sweet pastries with different fillings and shapes
Typical Moroccan bread and pancakes
Bread is the most important ingredient in Moroccan cuisine. It is eaten at every meal and is always present on the table. It is eaten with tagines, dipping bread in the sauce, or accompanied by grilled meat.
Morocco has a wide variety of delicious bread, from sourdough bread to flatbread. We loved almost all types of bread in Morocco and recommend trying them whenever possible.
Msemmen or Rghaif
Msemmen is one of the most typical breads in Morocco, and you will find it everywhere, from restaurants to street vendors. It is a laminated bread with thin layers of wheat flour and a little semolina. It is only slightly fermented. You need a lot of oil and butter to form the thin layers of dough, so it’s not the healthiest bread.
Eating msemmen for breakfast or a snack is common, accompanied by coffee or mint tea. And it can be sweet or savory depending on the fillings or sauces.
It is delicious and is usually served with butter, honey, jam, amlou, or cheese. Our favorite way of eating it was to dip the bread in the sauce and savor each bite.
Khobz
Khobz is the most common bread in Morocco. It is eaten at every meal, especially as a side dish for lunch and dinner. It is a round, flat bread, lightly leavened, and made from wheat flour or a mixture. It is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the top is sprinkled with seeds or aromatic herbs.
You can find this bread everywhere, whether in bakeries throughout the medinas or in restaurants served with meals. It can vary quite a lot.
Harcha
Harcha is a bread or pancake made with triticum durum semolina, a type of wheat. It is shaped like a small yellow disc and has a slightly rough texture as it is covered in semolina. It is fried in a frying pan with a little oil. It has a flavor and texture similar to cornbread, crumbling when cut.
They are eaten for breakfast, spread with butter, jam, honey, cheese, and syrup, or in the form of sandwiches. Although not as common as the other breads on this list, you will find harcha in hotels and Ryads that serve breakfast.
Beghrir
Beghrir is not really bread but rather a pancake made with wheat semolina, Triticum durum. These yellow pancakes look like honeycombs due to the large number of holes. They are drizzled with honey, jam, or butter, and sometimes a syrup made with honey and butter.
Due to its shape, Beghrir is also known as the thousand hole pancakes. They are a common breakfast in Morocco and are often served in hotels, ryads, or restaurants. They are very good, spongy, and fluffy and absorb sauces very well due to the holes in the pancake.
Soups and Salads
Harira
Harira is a thick soup made of vegetables, tomatoes, chickpeas, lentils, rice or vermicelli, meat, and spices such as ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, paprika, and cumin. It’s a mouthful of good ingredients. It is classified as Morocco’s national soup.
This soup is also often eaten during Ramadan. It is very nutritious and tasty, and it is a meal in itself. Although it traditionally has meat, there are versions with just vegetables.
You will find Harira everywhere in Morocco, and it is served at every meal. It’s a great suggestion if you want something lighter, tasty, but filling.
Moroccan salad
Moroccan salad is a basic salad made with tomato, cucumber, pepper, and onion cut into squares and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. It is sometimes accompanied by orange slices. It’s simple but so satisfying and refreshing.
This salad is everywhere, and although it’s not surprising, we order it constantly. It is similar to any Mediterranean salad, served as an accompaniment or a starter.
It’s always a good choice for any meal. The only thing we found was that there was usually a lack of salt, but this is a recurring factor in Moroccan cuisine, at least for us.
Zaalouk
Zaalouk is a salad or sauce made from roasted eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil seasoned with cumin, paprika, coriander, and parsley. It can be served cold or hot and is accompanied by flatbread. Dipping the bread in the creamy sauce is divine.
Zaalouk is served as a starter. In certain restaurants, a combination of small starters/salads (almost like tapas) are served accompanied by bread, and the aim is to share and taste them all. The problem is that after all the starters, you won’t have any appetite for the main course.
Pastries / Starters
Pastilla or Bastilla
Pastilla is one of Morocco’s most famous dishes. You can find it everywhere, in restaurants and pastry shops, but they say it’s a specialty of Fez. It is a dish made with filo dough (warqa) stuffed with shredded chicken, onion and spices, beaten eggs, ginger, turmeric, almonds, powdered sugar and cinnamon.
It is described as a sweet and savory dish, but in our experience, it was mostly sweet. Sometimes, it got a little strange because we always expected something saltier.
Traditionally, the pastilla is made with pigeon, but it is much more common to find it with chicken. It can be a starter or main dish. There is also fish pastilla, but this is a savory dish. It is made with different types of fish and seafood, such as vermicelli and mushrooms. It is a sweet pastilla made with almond milk and vanilla and eaten as a dessert.
Fez is the capital of pastilla, which is thought to have originated in Al-Andalus in the 16th century. Muslims took it to Morocco after the Reconquista.
It is a traditional dish from the Maghrebe area and is one of the best-known Moroccan dishes worldwide.
Briouat
Briouats are small filo dough pastries, called warqa, with various fillings. The most common are chicken, lamb, shrimp, cheese, lemon or spinach. They are fried or baked and sprinkled with sesame seeds or spices. They usually have a triangular or circular shape.
They are a great snack, eaten as a starter or as a snack. They are a common street food, sold at stalls in the medinas. They are not easily found in restaurants.
There are also sweet versions made with almonds or other nuts and soaked in honey syrup. Both sweet and savory Briouat are very common during Ramadan.
Shakshuka (Berbere Omelet)
Berber omelet, or shakshuka, is a common dish in North Africa and the Middle East. It is made with tomatoes, red peppers, onion, coriander, poached eggs, and various spices, such as cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and harissa. There are various ways to prepare it.
It is usually eaten as breakfast but also as a light meal. During our stay in Morocco, we ate shakshuka whenever we had the chance, and it was always different. Every cook has their version of this dish.
In Morocco, it is cooked and eaten in a tagine and accompanied by flat bread to dip in the delicious tomato and egg sauce. It’s always a good dish, regardless of the ingredients used or the way it’s cooked; it’s so satisfying.
We tried Shakshuka in Israel and Jordan, and it was delicious in both countries. It’s slightly different from the Moroccan one, but the base is the same: tomatoes, peppers, and a poached egg.
Tagines
Tagine is the most famous Moroccan dish. Basically, it is a stew of meat, vegetables, or fish cooked slowly using the cooking steam. The ingredients are tender, almost falling apart.
Dica
Tagine also refers to the cone-shaped clay pot in which it is cooked and served. Traditionally, tagine was made over coals or in a wood-burning oven, but nowadays, most people use an electric stove at minimum intensity.
There are lots of tagines with different ingredients and condiments. There is no way to go to Morocco and not eat a tagine. And no matter how many you choose, tagines are almost always distinctive. This list only includes three tagines, which we think are the most typical and different. But we also recommend eating Kafka Tagine, sardine meatballs, vegetables, and lamb.
Chicken and lemon tagine
Chicken tagine with olives and lemons is one of the most popular tagines and is available in all Moroccan restaurants. I’m glad that’s the case because this tagine is delicious.
It is made with pieces of chicken, onion, preserved lemon pulp, olives, and spices such as salt, ginger, pepper, turmeric, saffron, ras el hanout, parsley, and coriander. The chicken is very tender and juicy, and the combination of spices gives it a nice flavor.
This dish is especially good if you like olives, as you need to use many of them. It usually doesn’t come with any accompaniment, but it’s best to eat it with flatbread and dip it in the appetizing sauce.
Plum and almond tagine
The plum and almond tagine is another extremely popular tagine that constantly appears on menus. It is made with chicken or lamb, prunes, roasted almonds, ginger, and sometimes chickpeas, and spices such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, pepper, and coriander. However, the exact condiments and quantities vary a lot depending on the cook.
It’s a very exotic dish, and the sweet plums, crumbly meat, and crunchy almonds are a perfect combination.
Fish tagine
Fish tagine is a fish stew made in Tagine with lots of spices. It is made with boneless fish pieces (it can be hake, cod, grouper, etc.), tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions, and garlic, which are placed in layers. It is seasoned with paprika, cumin, and turmeric or with a sauce called chermoula, which is made with aromatic herbs, vinegar or lemon juice, and olive oil. Again, the ingredients vary greatly depending on the cook.
As with other tagines, everything is cooked slowly at low temperatures, resulting in an aromatic and appetizing dish. We recommend that you eat this tagine in more coastal areas of Morocco so that the fish is fresher.
Tangia
Tangia is a dish very similar to tagine. It is also made in a clay pot (in this case, called tangia). But in the tangia, the clay pot is covered with aluminum foil and placed in an underground oven, where it bakes for hours. It is said that tangia is only done by men. It’s made only with meat, usually lamb and steak, but there is also chicken.
The meat is cooked with water, garlic, and lemon juice and seasoned with cumin, saffron, and olive oil. The meat falls apart and is very juicy. This dish is not easily found outside of Marrakesh as it is mainly typical of this city.
Couscous
Couscous is one of the most famous ingredients in Morocco. It is a traditional Berber dish from the Maghreb region. It is made with wheat semolina, which is kneaded with water until it forms small grains and left to cook. In the past, it was a laborious process done by hand, but nowadays, everything is mechanized. The couscous is then steamed in a couscous pan.
In Morocco, it is traditional to eat couscous on Fridays or feast days. This dish is associated with family gatherings to share the celebration. Moroccans eat it with their hands, making balls and eating it directly from the plate. When visiting Morocco, you will find this dish everywhere, served with vegetables, meat, or fish.
It is such an important ingredient that it was added to the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Couscous with seven vegetables (Couscous Bidaoui)
Seven-vegetable couscous is one of the most popular dishes in Morocco. It originates from Casablanca, and it is traditional to eat it on Fridays with the family. It consists of a large dish with a mountain of couscous topped with vegetables and/or meat and caramelized onion with raisins (called Tfaya).
It is made with various vegetables, but it is not limited to seven; it depends on the time of year and the vegetables available. It usually contains onions, carrots, pumpkin, courgettes, turnips, cabbage, and chickpeas. Despite the name, it also has meat such as goat, steak, or chicken. It is seasoned with some spices. If you prefer, there is also a vegetarian version without meat.
Couscous is very popular and can be found in all restaurants. I don’t know if we were unlucky, but generally, when we ate couscous, we found it tasteless, without salt, and with too little sauce.
Couscous with meat
Couscous with meat is another very common dish in Morocco. In fact, almost all couscous dishes in Morocco are very popular. This couscous can be made in several ways and with different types of meat, the most common being chicken, steak, and lamb.
The couscous is steamed until fluffy and light, lightly seasoned, with virtually no salt. Served in a clay dish accompanied by stewed meat with a sauce that is supposed to drizzle over the couscous.
Main dishes
Grilled Keftas and Kebabs
Grilled keftas are one of the most popular street foods in Morocco. Keftas is the Arabic term for minced meat. It consists of a mixture of meats such as beef and lamb combined with various spices such as paprika, cumin, garlic, and fresh herbs. The meat is shaped into meatballs, sausages, or kebabs and grilled over charcoal.
It is accompanied by bread or even a sandwich and a Moroccan salad. In Morocco, you can order kafta from specialized butchers and then grill it in the restaurant next door. This combination butcher/restaurant exists in some service stations along main roads.
Brochettes
Brochettes, kebabs, or qotban (in Arabic) are skewers of meat, usually lamb, beef, or chicken. Surprisingly, we found many restaurants with chicken brochettes, which were great. The kebabs are grilled over coals, served with bread, and accompanied by a Moroccan salad and sometimes French fries. The name Kebabs is more associated with the Kafka kebabs mentioned above.
This dish is also a popular street food and is often found in all restaurants. The kebabs are very well-seasoned and tender. Some kebabs come interspersed with a little fat to add flavor, not necessarily for eating. Although they are not very exotic food, they are delicious and, due to the seasonings, special.
Tip
Be careful if you eat in Marrakesh’s main square. There are stalls selling street food, particularly kebabs, but the meal can be very expensive. Just order one or two kebabs and don’t follow the waiter’s suggestion. Otherwise, you will order too much food and pay too much for it.
Sardines Stuffed with Chermoula
Morocco is a great country to eat fish. Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, it has a wide variety of fish available, especially sardines, which are found in abundance from May to October.
Sardines stuffed with chermoula is a very popular street food. It is traditional in coastal cities such as Essaouira, Safim, and El Jadida. This dish consists of boneless scaled sardines stuffed with chermoula, which is a sauce made with fresh herbs, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice, and spices. The sauce is sandwiched between two sardines, which are then breaded and fried in hot oil. They are sprinkled with chopped coriander and lemon slices and served with a Moroccan salad.
We didn’t have the opportunity to eat this dish, which looks delicious. Despite several attempts, we were unable to find it.
Grilled fish
If you like fish, Morocco is a good destination for you. In coastal cities, you will find several restaurants serving high-quality fresh grilled fish. It is delicious served whole and accompanied with a Moroccan salad. You can easily find sea bream, swordfish, sardines, plaice, and mackerel, among others.
If you don’t want grilled fish, another enjoyable way to eat it is with the different fish tagines you can find in Morocco.
Seffa Medfouna
Seffa Medfouna is a traditional Moroccan dish made with saffron-seasoned chicken hidden in a mound of vermicelli or couscous. The vermicelli is steamed and seasoned with melted butter, raisins, cinnamon, and powdered sugar.
It is a sweet and savory dish. The amount of powdered sugar and cinnamon is optional, as it can be offered separately. There is only a sweet version of this dish without meat, called Seffa, which is similar to Portuguese vermicelli.
It’s not a dish you often find in restaurants, but when we find it, we immediately take the opportunity to try it.
Pastries and Sweets
Kaab Ghazhl
Kaab Ghazhl are beautiful and decadent pastries shaped like a crescent moon. The name in Arabic means gazelle ankles. They are made with a thin dough of flour and butter and filled with almond paste, sugar, butter, orange blossom water, and Arabic gum. At the end, they can be dipped in orange blossom water syrup.
They are eaten on festive days, during the Eid Al Fitr festival at the end of Ramadan. And you can easily find them in bakeries.
Chebakyas
Chebakyas are traditional sweets from the Maghreb area, known by various names such as griouech or mkharka. In Morocco, they are traditionally eaten during Ramadan or during special festivals such as birthdays and weddings.
It’s a beautiful sweet, shaped like a flower, and crunchy and syrupy simultaneously. It is made from a dough of flour, anise, saffron, cinnamon, turmeric, olive oil, and orange blossom. It is fried in hot oil until golden. At the end, it is dipped in honey and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
They are very good. They are a little sticky and elastic but crunchy and have a different spicy flavor. You can find these sweets everywhere in Morocco, in market stalls, bakeries, and pastry shops.
Sellou
Sellou or Sfouf is a typical Moroccan sweet; it is unconventional and strangely captivating. It is made with roasted almond flour, oven-roasted wheat flour, sesame seeds, and a little cinnamon. At the end it is molded with butter and honey.
It is usually arranged in the shape of a mountain or cone decorated with almonds, but it can be shaped differently. It’s fascinating to see. It is a sweet that crumbles, with a texture similar to flour. It does not have a strong flavor but leaves a pleasant almond flavor in the mouth.
It is traditional in Ramadan or postpartum, following the birth of a child, as it is very nutritious and energetic. It’s a sweet that’s well worth trying.
Oranges with cinnamon
Oranges with cinnamon are a simple and basic dessert that it’s strange to include on this list of what to eat in Morocco, but it’s so iconic that it had to be here. This dessert consists of orange slices flavored with orange blossom water and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
First, we must clarify that Morocco is a large producer of oranges. They are very good, sweet, and juicy. You will find oranges everywhere, and if you like oranges, Morocco is the country for you. The combination of orange slices with cinnamon and orange blossom water is perfect.
This dessert is served in almost every restaurant in Morocco, so you won’t have any trouble finding it.
To drink
Mint tea
Mint tea is Morocco’s national drink, and it is found everywhere. It is often served as a welcome drink to show the host’s good hospitality.
The tea is made with a mixture of green tea, mint leaves, and large amounts of sugar. It is served in small cups decorated with gold or a colorful pattern.
The process of serving and making tea is ceremonious. First, the mint leaves are infused in hot water for a few minutes, then a little tea is added to a glass and poured back into the teapot. This is repeated several times. Finally, the host tastes the tea, which is not served to the guests until it is perfect. The tea is served from a height so that the liquid draws a large arc before falling into the cup.
Of course, this process is simplified daily, but drinking tea in Morocco is always a pleasant experience. If you prefer little or no sugar, ask beforehand.
Fruit Juices
Morocco has a lot of varied fruit and lots of it. Therefore, the abundant consumption of fruit smoothies is not surprising. We find fruit smoothies everywhere: in restaurants, cafes, snack bars, and stores that specialize in juice.
Orange juice is especially good. As we have already mentioned, oranges are a fruit that exists in abundance and of good quality in Morocco. So when you go to Morocco, don’t hesitate to drink fruit juices whenever you can.
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