Morocco is one of the world’s incredible foodie destinations. Food in Morocco is fabulous, and these are the top dishes to try on your visit.
Rated among the top culinary destinations in the world, Moroccan cooking is world-famous for its range of flavors, spice blends, and colorful cuisine. A journey to the country, whether it exploring cultural centers such as Marrakech or Casablanca or travels to the rural communities such as Mergouza and Soukra, offers a gastronomical delight to both new and seasoned travelers.
When faced with such a range of offerings, deciding what food to eat in Morocco is nearly impossible. But after weeks of traveling through the country, sampling a range of cuisines from the wealth of unique cultures throughout the country, we’ve identified 10 Moroccan foods that you simply must try.
Because of its unique place bordering Europe along the famed Spice Trail, Moroccan cuisine blends seamlessly with the flavors of many nearby countries. Traditional Moroccan foods like beef Kofta can be found in countries like Turkiye and Iran, while Spanish flavors also abound, especially in the teas and meat dishes.
What Is Food In Morocco Like?
Moroccan food is fabulous. The meals in Morocco tend to stick to traditional stylings. Food throughout the country is influenced by the wide variety of cultures that have made Morocco their home. You’ll find dishes influenced by Amazigh, Southern Saharan, Andalusian, and Mediterranean cuisines. And with its proximity to Europe (Morocco lies just 9 miles from mainland Spain), French and Spanish flavors often wind their way in and out of Moroccan dishes.
Moroccan food, as it exists today, is steeped in history. In fact, many dishes that exist in Morocco to this day can trace their history back to the Islamic conquests and Berber revolts of the 7th century.
Food in Morocco tends to offer an excellent variety of flavors and styles that use the wide range of fruits and vegetables that grow in the country to add to the hearty flavors of meats such as beef, chicken, goat, mutton, and lamb. Along with seafood, these meats make up the bases for many of the most popular foods in Morocco.
While you won’t many find pork dishes here due to Islamic dietary restrictions, there is an up-and-coming beer and wine movement in the country that is starting to draw attention from world-renowned artisans.
Grains and bread are a big part of the food in Morocco. You’ll rarely find a meal that isn’t served without Moroccan bread. Moroccan bread, also known as khobz, is a large, round flattened loaf and is shockingly consistent in flavor throughout the country. Wheat is also used for couscous, which is one of the staples throughout the country.
You can talk about food in Morocco without talking about spices. Stroll through the markets in any town, and you’ll see a colorful display of spices packed in a gravity-defying format just begging to be used for cooking.
Flavors such as saffron, mint, olives, orange, olives, and lemons are all grown within the country. Many dishes exude flavors of cinnamon, cumin, ginger, paprika, mace, nutmeg, and other delightful sprinkles. In fact, Moroccan Spice, one of the most delicious spice mixtures, is a combination of 27 unique herbs and spices.
Typical meals in Morocco start off with Moroccan tea followed by a combination of hot and cold salads. After that, formal Moroccan meals include either a tagine or dwaz, usually made with lamb or chicken and couscous topped with meat and vegetables.
It’s common for meals to be eaten from a single dish, with diners using their hands to scoop up food into rolled-up Moroccan bread.
10 Moroccan Foods You Must Try
There are countless foods in Morocco that are worth experiencing, but there’s only so much time to enjoy them. So to help you have the best Morocco food experience, here are the top ten foods you must eat while in Morocco.
Tagine
Tagine is a traditional Morocco cooking style that you’ll find throughout Morocco. If you travel through Morocco and don’t get the chance to enjoy a tagine, you must be actively trying to avoid it.
A tagine is a clay cooking pot with a tall lid shaped a bit like a cone. They act as a type of slow cooker. Meals made in a tagine typically involve a combination of meats, herbs, spices, and vegetables that are combined and cooked for several hours. They are almost always eaten directly from the dish with Moroccan bread.
Tagines are a popular souvenir for travelers in Morocco. We picked up an absolutely beautiful one in Marrakech that we often use to recreate some of the many different tagine dishes that we ate throughout Morocco.
Couscous
If there is one thing that you must eat while in Morocco, it’s couscous. Why? Well, couscous is the national dish of Morocco, that’s why!
Couscous is something that is typically prepared weekly in Moroccan homes. This fine wheat pasta is usually hand-rolled and steamed over a stew, typically made with a mixture of meat and vegetables. It’s almost always enjoyed as a communal dish, either eaten in a tagine or from a large plate.
Couscous in Morocco is often served with a sweet raisin preserve or, in the Berber regions, with a bowl of buttermilk.
B’ssara
My first taste of b’ssara was while strolling through the mazelike Fes medina. This chickpea and bean-based soup is a staple in the big cities. And at just a few cents per bowl, it’s not a surprise why this healthy, filling Moroccan soup is so popular.
It’s also hard not to notice which shops are known for selling the best b’ssara in Morocco, as they often have crowds lined up to enjoy a bowl of this thick, traditional soup.
b’sarra is typically made with white beans and/or chickpeas (chickpeas are often the base in countries such as Tunisia). It’s sprinkled with garlic, onion, cumin, and paprika, then topped with a splash of olive oil. The dish is typically served with fresh bread, which is used to soak up the soup. It was my children’s favorite food in the whole country.
Mint tea
Like Tagine, you’ll have a hard time exploring Morocco without trying mint tea. This light, refreshing drink is served almost everywhere, although there are a few different variations depending on where you are in the country.
Traditional mint tea has a Chinese gunpowder green tea base and is steeped with a few spearmint sprigs, which have been added to the teapot. It can be served sweetened (as my kids like it) or unsweetened. If you travel to areas with a Berber majority, you’ll often find Moroccan tea served with a hint of thyme, which I found delightful.
Makouda
Simple, fast, and absolutely delicious, Makouda was one of our favorite Moroccan street foods. We first tried it in the Fes medina but were searching for it everywhere we traveled in the country.
Makouda, which is just one of the many Moroccan street foods you’ll find throughout the bustling alleys, are deep-fried smashed potato balls. The potato is mixed with flour and herbs and then fried. They are typically served with a slightly spicy harissa sauce.
Mechoui
Mechoui was one of the biggest surprises of our ten-day Morocco itinerary. I wasn’t familiar with this dish before we visited.
We stopped at a small roadside market on our drive between Rabat and Fes. Here we saw countless sheep hung out to dry throughout. Nearby was a roasting pit that was filled with burning araar wood. Above it was a grill where tender lamb meat was being slowly roasted throughout the day.
The fall-off-the-bone meat was absolutely delicious. It’s typically served with fries and a small salad.
Babbouche
One of the most interesting street foods in Morocco is Babbouche. You’ll find carts serving this traditional Moroccan dish hidden in alleys throughout the country’s medinas.
Babbouche, or Moroccan snail soup, involves slow-cooking snails in a broth (typically chicken or vegetable broth) along with a collection of herbs and spices, including thyme, aniseed, gum arabic, mint, caraway, and licorice.
Diners typically use a toothpick to pull the snails from the shells and then drink down the soup. The dish itself is delicious, but it’s also used as a digestive aid and to help with fever.
Fish Chermoula
Morocco has a massive shoreline that covers both the southern Mediterranean and the western Atlantic coasts. And yet I wasn’t a huge fan of most of the fish dishes that I tried throughout the country. With the exception of Fish Chermoula.
Chermoula isn’t really a “dish” per se but rather a style of seasoning that is often used on fish dishes. The combination of onion, coriander, chili, and saffron is used, typically to season the fish, but sometimes as a dipping sauce or a marinade as well.
My personal favorite involves marinating the fish and then grilling it over charcoal with a Chermoula dipping sauce.
Bastilla
Moroccan bastilla is the local version of savory pie. Within the country, the dish is often made with either pigeon or chicken meat. The meat is cooked in a combination of saffron, ginger, pepper, and cinnamon and then packaged in many layers of paper-like warqa brick pastry.
This dish doesn’t stop there, though. It’s also packaged with a seasoned omelet, roasted sliced almonds, and splashed with orange flower water. Making Moroccan Bastilla is, most definitely, not the easiest Moroccan recipe, but the result is an unforgettable combination of flavors.
Brochettes
One of the quintessential Moroccan street foods is brochettes. These tasty kebabs can easily be tracked down in the Moroccan medinas due to the copious amount of smoke that pours off of the charcoal barbecues.
The tasty meat strips, typically beef, chicken, or lamb, are massaged with spices. They’re absolutely delicious and make for an amazing savory treat after a day of shopping or just wandering the markets.
Discover The Best Food in Morocco For Yourself
If you’re looking for the best food to eat in Morocco, we have you covered. These must-try dishes and where to find them will delight your flavor senses as you explore one of the most fascinating countries on Earth.
If we missed a dish, don’t hesitate to drop a comment below, and I’ll be sure to check it out on my next visit to the country.
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