Best Tagine in Beni Mellal — Tadla Plain Country Cooking

Beni Mellal is farming country, watered by the Oum Er-Rbia river and the famous spring of Ain Asserdoune, and its tagines reflect that abundance. The everyday versions are hearty and vegetable-rich — lamb or beef slow-simmered with onion, cumin, saffron and the Tadla plain's carrots, potatoes, courgettes and pumpkin, and chicken with preserved lemon and the region's own olives. Local olive oil, produced in quantity from the plain's extensive groves, gives the cooking a rounded, fruity depth.

The plain's citrus and produce find their way into the sweeter tagines too — lamb with prunes and almonds, or dishes brightened with the oranges the region is known for. Cooked slowly under the conical lid, a good Beni Mellal tagine reduces to a glossy, generous sauce you mop up with bread, the meat falling from the bone. Being close to the mountains, the town also does robust cold-weather cooking well, warming and richly spiced.

The honest versions are found at the small canteens and family eateries around the medina and central market, where farmers, traders and workers eat lunch — this is a working agricultural hub rather than a tourist town, so the food is honest and locally priced. As across Morocco, tagine is a midday dish that has been cooking since morning, so arrive hungry in the early afternoon. Vegetable tagines, built on the plain's excellent produce, are especially good here.

Share one tagine between two with plenty of bread and a salad dressed in the local olive oil. In Beni Mellal, the richness of the land is the point — this is some of Morocco's most generous everyday country cooking.