All 690 recipes
Page 3 of 29 · Showing recipes 49–72
Condiment
Tfaya (Caramelised Onion & Raisin Couscous Topping)
Tfaya is the glossy, sweet-spiced crown that turns a plain couscous or a plate of chicken into a celebration. Onions are slow-cooked with raisins, honey, cinnamon and a pinch of saffron until they collapse into a dark, jammy tangle. It is spooned over couscous tfaya with chicken and topped with fried almonds and hard-boiled eggs — a hallmark of Moroccan wedding tables.
- Total time
- 65 min
- Servings
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
Soup
Babbouche (Moroccan Snail Soup)
Babbouche — small land snails simmered in a fiercely aromatic broth — is one of Marrakech's most beloved street foods, ladled steaming from bubbling cauldrons on Jemaa el-Fnaa after dark. The broth is built on a dozen or more herbs and spices, among them wild thyme, liquorice root, aniseed and gum arabic, and is drunk on its own for its warming, digestive reputation.
- Total time
- 120 min
- Servings
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Medium
Main course
Djaj Mhammer (Saffron & Smen Braised Chicken)
Mhammer means 'reddened', and djaj mhammer is chicken braised in a concentrated saffron, ginger and paprika sauce enriched with smen until the skin takes on a deep russet glow. Unlike the brothy chicken tagine, this one is reduced to an almost dry, glossy coating and often finished under the grill or crowned with fried potatoes, olives and preserved lemon.
- Total time
- 95 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
Main course
Hout Mqli (Moroccan Fried Fish with Chermoula)
Along the Atlantic coast and in Marrakech's fish stalls, hout mqli is the everyday way with fresh fish: fillets or small whole fish steeped in bright green chermoula, dredged in seasoned flour or semolina, and shallow-fried until the crust shatters and the flesh stays juicy. It is street food at its simplest and best, eaten with a squeeze of lemon and bread.
- Total time
- 45 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Main course
Lamb Tagine with Artichokes, Peas & Preserved Lemon
A spring tagine that turns up on Marrakech tables when artichokes and fresh peas are in season. Lamb is braised in a saffron-ginger sauce until tender, then the vegetables are folded in near the end so they stay bright and grassy against the rich meat. Preserved lemon and green olives lift the whole dish with their salty tang.
- Total time
- 120 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
Main course
Barley Couscous (Couscous Belboula)
Belboula is couscous made from barley rather than durum wheat — nuttier, earthier and a little grey-gold, long favoured in the Amazigh countryside around Marrakech and the High Atlas. Steamed the same three-times way over a vegetable-and-meat broth, it is traditionally served drenched in fresh buttermilk (lben), a rustic, deeply satisfying dish.
- Total time
- 120 min
- Servings
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Medium
Main course
Baddaz (Moroccan Cracked-Corn Couscous)
Baddaz is a humble Marrakchi and Amazigh dish of coarsely cracked dried corn steamed exactly like couscous until tender and fluffy. Earthy and slightly sweet, it is served heaped with a buttery, oniony sauce or simply drowned in fresh buttermilk. It is peasant food in the best sense — cheap, filling and beloved as a taste of the countryside.
- Total time
- 95 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
Condiment
Matisha Mhlowa (Sweet Tomato Jam with Honey)
Matisha mhlowa — literally 'sweet tomatoes' — is a jammy, spiced tomato reduction cooked down with honey, cinnamon and toasted sesame until dark and sticky. It is the traditional partner to mechoui and grilled kefta, a sweet-savoury relish that turns roast meat into a feast. Some cooks finish it with fried almonds for crunch.
- Total time
- 75 min
- Servings
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
Breakfast
Baid bel Matisha (Moroccan Eggs & Tomato)
Baid bel matisha is Morocco's answer to a one-pan egg breakfast — a garlicky, cumin-scented tomato sauce with eggs cracked in to poach on top, often cooked and served straight from a small tagine. Quick, cheap and endlessly comforting, it is a staple of home breakfasts and light suppers, scooped up with warm bread.
- Total time
- 35 min
- Servings
- Serves 2
- Difficulty
- Easy
Soup
Hssoua Belboula (Barley Breakfast Soup)
Hssoua belboula is a silky barley soup that Amazigh families across the Marrakech region eat to start cold mornings and to break the Ramadan fast. Ground barley is whisked into simmering water or milk with a little olive oil and salt until it thickens into a warm, nourishing porridge-soup, finished simply with olive oil, cumin or a swirl of honey.
- Total time
- 40 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Pastry
Kaab el Ghazal (Gazelle Horns Almond Crescents)
Kaab el ghazal — 'gazelle horns' — are Morocco's most elegant pastry: slender crescents of thin, tender dough curled around a fragrant almond paste scented with orange-blossom water and cinnamon. A signature of Fassi confectionery and every important celebration, they are pale, delicate and only lightly sweet, traditionally served with mint tea.
- Total time
- 95 min
- Servings
- Serves 10
- Difficulty
- Advanced
Pastry
Makroud (Semolina Date Cookies)
Makroud are diamond-shaped semolina cookies packed with a spiced date paste, fried or baked and then soaked in honey. Common across the Maghreb and especially loved in eastern Morocco around Oujda, they are dense, chewy and richly date-sweet — a keeping cookie that appears at Ramadan, weddings and on every tea tray.
- Total time
- 75 min
- Servings
- Serves 10
- Difficulty
- Medium
Breakfast
Jben (Fresh Moroccan Cheese)
Jben is Morocco's simple fresh cheese — soft, white and mild, set from cow's or goat's milk and pressed just enough to hold a shape. In the northern Rif around Chefchaouen it is a goat's-milk speciality wrapped in palm leaves; at home it is an easy breakfast cheese, eaten with bread, honey, olives and mint tea. Making it needs nothing more than milk, an acid and a little patience.
- Total time
- 35 min
- Servings
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
Dessert
Raib (Moroccan Set Fermented Milk)
Raib is Morocco's traditional set milk — fresh whole milk gently soured and thickened into a soft, spoonable curd somewhere between yoghurt and junket, perfumed with orange-blossom water. Traditionally it was set with the flower of the wild cardoon (qernina); today lemon or a spoon of yoghurt culture does the same job. Cool, faintly tangy and delicately floral, it is a beloved everyday dessert.
- Total time
- 15 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Drink
Moroccan Avocado Juice (Jus d'Avocat)
Thick enough to eat with a spoon, jus d'avocat is one of the great pleasures of a Marrakech juice stall — ripe avocado blended with cold milk and sugar into a pale-green shake, layered in a tall glass and crowned with chopped almonds, walnuts and sometimes a swirl of date syrup. Rich, cooling and sustaining, it is a snack and a drink in one.
- Total time
- 10 min
- Servings
- Serves 2
- Difficulty
- Easy
Drink
Sharbat bil Looz (Moroccan Almond Milk)
Sharbat bil looz is the celebratory almond milk poured at Moroccan weddings and offered to honoured guests — raw almonds blanched, ground and pressed into a fragrant, milky drink sweetened with sugar and perfumed with orange-blossom water. Served ice-cold, it is far removed from carton almond milk: rich, aromatic and just slightly thick.
- Total time
- 20 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Drink
Qahwa Harra (Moroccan Spiced Coffee)
Moroccan spiced coffee — qahwa harra or qahwa bel a'ashab — is coffee brewed or dosed with a warming spice blend that Marrakech spice sellers grind to order: black pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, sometimes sesame, aniseed or a whisper of dried ginseng. The result is dark, aromatic and gently peppery, a coffee that tastes distinctly of the souk.
- Total time
- 15 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Main course
Calamari Tagine with Chermoula
A coastal Moroccan tagine that keeps things quick and bright — squid gently stewed in a chermoula-based tomato sauce with peppers and preserved lemon until just tender. The trick with calamari is timing: cook it briefly or long, never in between, or it turns to rubber. This version braises it slowly enough to stay silky and to drink in the garlicky, herby sauce.
- Total time
- 65 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
Salad
Aubergine Mderbel (Fried Aubergine & Garlic Salad)
Mderbel is a Moroccan technique of frying a vegetable then simmering it down with garlic and spices into a soft, savoury, almost caramelised cooked salad. Aubergine mderbel is the classic: golden-fried aubergine melted with garlic, paprika, cumin and a little tomato until rich and jammy. It sits on the mezze table beside zaalouk and taktouka, scooped with bread.
- Total time
- 50 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Condiment
Chermoula (Moroccan Herb & Spice Marinade)
Chermoula is the vivid green marinade at the heart of Moroccan cooking — a loose paste of coriander, parsley, garlic, cumin, paprika, lemon and good olive oil, often sharpened with preserved lemon and a little cayenne. It is the classic dress for fish and seafood, but also brightens chicken, vegetables and cooked salads. Learn this one and half the coastal repertoire opens up.
- Total time
- 10 min
- Servings
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
Condiment
Preserved Lemons (L'hamd Marakad)
Preserved lemons are the single most Moroccan ingredient there is — whole lemons packed in salt and their own juice until the rind softens to a silky, intensely savoury, faintly floral tang. They perfume chicken tagine, fish chermoula and countless salads. The method is almost absurdly simple, but it takes about a month of patience before the jar is ready.
- Total time
- 20 min
- Servings
- Serves 12
- Difficulty
- Easy
Condiment
Smen (Moroccan Preserved Fermented Butter)
Smen is Morocco's aged, salted, fermented butter — pungent, cheesy and deeply savoury, a little like a cross between ghee and a ripe blue cheese. A spoonful transforms a tagine, couscous broth or bowl of harira, and traditionally jars of smen were buried and aged for months, even years, as a mark of a household's wealth. A small amount goes a very long way.
- Total time
- 35 min
- Servings
- Serves 20
- Difficulty
- Medium
Main Dishes
Fes-Style Lamb Tangia
Tangia is best known as Marrakech's bachelor dish, sealed into an urn-shaped clay pot and left in the embers of a hammam furnace for hours. Fassi households make their own quieter version at home, leaning on saffron, cinnamon and a splash of orange blossom water instead of the cumin-heavy Marrakchia blend, so the lamb comes out perfumed rather than punchy.
- Total time
- 260 min
- Servings
- Serves 4
- Difficulty
- Advanced
Main Dishes
Fes Chicken Bastilla
Fes claims the original bastilla, and while pigeon was the historic filling, chicken is the everyday version served at family tables and city patisseries alike. Shredded chicken simmered in a saffron-onion sauce is layered with cinnamon-almond sugar inside crisp warqa pastry, landing the dish's signature sweet-savoury contrast in every bite.
- Total time
- 120 min
- Servings
- Serves 8
- Difficulty
- Advanced
Want to cook these dishes hands-on in Marrakech?
Book a cooking class — start in the spice souk, finish around the table.