Moroccan cuisine melds Arab and Berber traditions with Mediterranean, Andalusian, and some southern European influences to create complex-tasting dishes with deeply layered flavors. Lamb, couscous, apricots, olives, chickpeas, saffron, and preserved lemons are staple ingredients here, along with ras el hanout spice blend and harissa chile paste. Try your hand at an aromatic tagine, mix a batch of zesty merguez lamb sausages, or griddle up some lacy semolina pancakes and savor the warm, fragrant flavors of North Africa.
Lamb Sausage Kefta
Grassy, sweet lamb gets a flavor boost from a warm Moroccan spice mix in this kefta. Chilling the sausage before cooking helps it hold its shape and stay tender and juicy, getting nice and browned in the skillet. If you’d like, you can substitute pork for lamb; the lamb sausage mixture can also be used to make meatballs or burger patties. Serve the kefta with a tzatziki-style dip.
Saffron Chicken Tagine
This version of North Africa’s deeply flavored tagine from chef Andrew Zimmern is designed for a large enameled cast-iron casserole, no earthenware tagine necessary. Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients; it consists mostly of spices and easy-to-find staples that you’ll use over and over.
Spicy Merguez Scramble with Lemon-Harissa Yogurt and Moroccan M’smen
M’smen — an intensely buttery Moroccan flatbread — is the basis for a slew of delicious meals. “It’s the ideal vehicle for almost any dip and a gorgeous base on which to pile a salad or braised vegetables and meat,” writes Gail Simmons. “Crisped up in a pan with a little (more) butter or oil, my most recent m’smen revelation is for breakfast, served with harissa-spiced yogurt, merguez sausage, and eggs.”
Moroccan Chickpea, Carrot, and Spinach Soup
This recipe rounds up flavorings to highlight the humble legume without overpowering it. Gently sautéed onions add sweetness and a silky texture; carrots provide heft; and a heady spice mix pays homage to the cuisines of North Africa where chickpeas prevail.
Moroccan-Style Lamb Shanks
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless
Red wine, tomatoes, harissa, almonds, mint, and cilantro give these slow-braised lamb shanks lots of bright flavor. It’s a dinner party-worthy dish, especially since most of the cooking is hands-off. Serve the lamb over couscous for an easy but impressive meal.
Shrimp and Vegetable Tagine with Preserved Lemon
Preserved lemons are a Moroccan ingredient made by macerating whole lemons in lemon juice and salt until they’re very soft. They add a citrusy tanginess to this hearty Moroccan shrimp stew from San Franscisco chef Mourad Lahlou.
Tangier Street Bread (Kalinté)
This bread is Tangier’s version of socca, the chickpea flour-based pancake of Nice, France, but it’s much thicker and more custardy, like flan. Moroccans eat it by the slice on the street, sprinkled with cumin or smeared with harissa, but it’s also delicious spread with cold salads, like Fresh Tomato and Caper Salad.
Fresh Tomato and Caper Salad
When guests sit down to the dinner table, Moroccan hosts often set out small salads to eat with bread or on their own. Cookbook author Paula Wolfert found this salad in Essaouira, along the Atlantic coast. She says it’s rare to see capers in Moroccan salads, even though the country is one of the world’s leading suppliers.
Moroccan Lamb Stew with Noodles
Paula Wolfert learned a chicken dish called chaariya medfouna from a private cook named Karima. “Chaariya means noodles,” Wolfert says. “Medfoun means a surprise or something hidden.” In Paula’s adaptation, the steamed noodles cover tender chunks of lamb spiced with cumin.
Lentils with Butternut Squash and Merguez Sausage
©Fredrika Stjärne
In this dish from chef Mourad Lahlou of Aziza in San Francisco, baked merguez sausage is served atop a Moroccan-spiced lentil and butternut squash mixture. The recipe is ready in just 45 minutes.
Semolina Pancakes
Every morning, cafés in Marrakech serve these crêpes, called begrhir, drizzled with honey or spread with apricot jam. Cooking the crêpes on only one side leaves a lacy network of tiny holes, perfect for catching the sweet toppings; the fine semolina provides a lovely sandy texture.
Lamb Tagine with Green Olives and Lemon
When making most stews, cooks typically brown the meat before braising it. Here, 2008 F&W Best New Chef Ethan Stowell skips that step, which simplifies the recipe and gives the lamb a buttery, melt-in-the-mouth texture. The dish is vibrantly flavored with ginger, cumin, coriander, olives, and lemon; the broth is delicious over couscous.
Garlicky Eggplant Salad with Tomato Sauce
Like many Moroccan salads, this super-silky and intensely flavored version of ratatouille is made from spiced or sweetened cooked vegetables that are mashed rather than cut into pieces. Like Italian antipasti, Moroccan salads are often served as an appetizer.
Moroccan Chicken with Apricot and Olive Relish
This grilled chicken dish transforms the sweet-savory elements of a Moroccan tagine — apricots, olives, couscous — into a light meal. The marinade and relish are both flavored with eucalyptus honey, which has a deep, herbal flavor that’s delicious with the smoky chicken. Plus, the honey caramelizes on the grill, which makes the chicken extra crispy.
Moroccan Carrot Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing
Chef Susan Feniger likes to make this salad early in the day, so the carrots marinate a bit in the dressing. Harissa, the North African chile paste, adds fiery heat.
Sfinj (Moroccan Doughnuts)
These luscious doughnuts are crispy on the outside and very fluffy and airy on the inside. They’re usually served dipped in sugar or honey, but New York Shuk co-founders Leetal and Ron Arazi love to serve them with a saffron and cardamom syrup.
Hanger Steak with Charmoula
This dish was inspired by Moroccan lamb kebabs, which are marinated in charmoula — a tangy sauce of olive oil, garlic, herbs, and spices. Here, chef Mourad Lahlou uses the sauce for hanger steak. He salts the meat a day ahead; the simplified recipe calls for salting the steak right before cooking.
Moroccan Olive Bread
Berber women sell loaves of dense and crusty bread in market stalls throughout Morocco. In this recipe, thickly slicing the olives before placing them on the unbaked bread allows the briny oil from the cut sides to seep into the dough.
Chicken Tagine with Artichoke Hearts and Peas
To give this Moroccan stew flavor without much fat, chef Joël Robuchon simmered it in a spiced broth. Artichoke hearts add a lovely spring flavor to the dish. It’s wonderful paired with a lemony Grüner Veltliner from Austria.
Fiery Moroccan Lamb Merguez
Chef Hank Shaw likens sausage-making to jazz: “You have all these standards, but there’s room for improvisation.” With this spicy merguez from North Africa, adjust the seasonings to vary the flavor intensity and heat.
Popletas
Popletas are fried, meat-filled potato dumplings. In Morocco, they’re a street food eaten year-round.
Moroccan Couscous-Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Here, dried apricots provide a fruity twist to an otherwise savory dish. If you’d prefer to use Cornish hens instead, simply double the couscous recipe and stuff it inside the cavities of four birds.
Chickpea Tagine
Chef Christine Manfield created this fragrant stew of chickpeas, butternut squash, red potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini after a trip to Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. It’s finished off with fresh cilantro and served with yogurt and harissa.
Sautéed Chicken with Celery Root Puree and Chestnuts
Chef Mourad Lahlou poaches fresh chestnuts sous vide to accompany chicken breasts and buttery celery root puree. F&W’s adaptation calls for store-bought chestnuts that are already peeled and cooked.
Moroccan Rice Pudding with Toasted Almonds
Rice pudding is prepared in one form or another all over the eastern Mediterranean. This Moroccan version is particularly delicious, perhaps because the rice is cooked in two stages; first it’s boiled in water, then it’s simmered in milk.
Moroccan Roasted Chicken
© Lucy Schaeffer
A Moroccan take on a classic worldwide dish, this variation is rubbed with a buttery blend of eight spices and roasted with onion, garlic, dried apricots, and dates.
Moroccan Date Bonbons
Chef Elizabeth Falkner loves eating these energy-boosting, cardamom-spiced date bites made with almonds, walnuts, and pistachios. “Eat two of these as a snack or with some juice for breakfast, and you’re satisfied,” she says.
