Quick answer: On a Moroccan desert trip, try a slow-cooked tagine, Friday couscous, harira soup, madfouna (the stuffed “Berber pizza” of the Merzouga region), Erfoud dates and sweet mint tea. At camp you may also taste bread baked in hot sand. Most dishes are mildly spiced rather than hot, and vegetarian versions are easy to find.
Food is one of the best reasons to drive the long road from Marrakech or Fes to the Sahara. Every stop has its speciality, and by the time you reach our part of the desert you will have eaten in mountain villages, kasbah hotels and roadside cafes. This is our guide to the Moroccan food to try along the way, including the dishes our own families cook here in Merzouga.
Tagine: the dish you will eat most
A tagine is both the cone-shaped clay pot and the stew slowly cooked inside it. The lid traps steam, so meat and vegetables cook gently in their own juices. On the desert route you will find:
- Chicken with preserved lemon and olives, tangy and fragrant.
- Beef or lamb with prunes and almonds, sweet and rich, often served at celebrations.
- Kefta tagine, spiced meatballs in tomato sauce with an egg cracked on top.
- Vegetable tagine, a staple for vegetarians, with carrots, potatoes, courgettes and peppers.
Tagines are eaten with bread, scooping food from the side of the pot closest to you with your right hand. Cutlery is always available if you prefer.
Couscous: a Friday tradition
Couscous is steamed semolina, traditionally rolled by hand and steamed several times over a pot of stew. In Moroccan homes it is the Friday lunch after midday prayers, shared from one large dish. Look for couscous tfaya, topped with caramelised onions and raisins, or the seven-vegetable version. Many restaurants on the tourist route serve it daily, but a Friday couscous in a family home is special.
Harira and other soups
Harira is a hearty tomato-based soup with lentils, chickpeas, herbs and sometimes a little meat. It is the dish that breaks the fast every evening during Ramadan, usually with dates and chebakia sesame pastries. Bissara, a thick split-pea or broad-bean soup drizzled with olive oil and cumin, is a cheap, warming breakfast in cold mountain towns.
Madfouna: the speciality of our region
If you only try one local dish in the Merzouga area, make it madfouna, sometimes called Berber pizza. It is a large flatbread stuffed with minced meat, onions, eggs, herbs and spices, then baked, traditionally in a clay oven or even buried in hot embers. It is a speciality of the Tafilalet region around Rissani and Merzouga and is big enough to share between two or three people. Vegetarian versions exist too. We often stop for madfouna during our 4-day Marrakech to Fes Sahara tour, and guests always ask for it again.
Dates from the Tafilalet oasis
The palm groves around Erfoud and Rissani produce some of Morocco's best dates, including the prized mejhoul variety and many local types. Erfoud celebrates the harvest with a date festival, traditionally held in the autumn. Dates are offered with milk to welcome guests, eaten as a quick energy snack on camel treks, and sold by the kilo in Rissani market.
Food at a desert camp
Dinner in the dunes is usually served in a dining tent or under the stars. A typical camp menu includes:
- Mint tea and nuts on arrival.
- Harira or vegetable soup.
- Moroccan salads, such as tomato and cucumber or cooked aubergine zaalouk.
- Chicken, beef or vegetable tagine with bread.
- Seasonal fruit for dessert.
At some camps the team bakes khobz or taguella, a bread buried in hot sand beneath the fire, as nomads have done for generations. Breakfast brings pancakes such as msemen (layered and square) and baghrir (spongy “thousand-hole” pancakes) with honey, jam, olive oil and amlou, a spread of almonds, argan oil and honey.
Other dishes worth seeking out
- Pastilla: a flaky pastry pie, classically pigeon or chicken with almonds, cinnamon and icing sugar, a Fes speciality.
- Tanjia: Marrakech's bachelor stew, beef slow-cooked in a clay urn in the ashes of a hammam fire.
- Mechoui: whole slow-roasted lamb, tender enough to pull apart.
- Khlii: preserved dried meat cooked in fat, often served with eggs for breakfast.
- Brochettes: grilled skewers of lamb, beef or liver sold at roadside grills, such as the butcher-grill stops along the Middle Atlas roads.
- Trout: fresh trout from the rivers and farms around Ifrane and Azrou.
Drinks: mint tea and more
Mint tea, sometimes jokingly called Berber whisky, is green gunpowder tea brewed with fresh mint and plenty of sugar, poured from a height to create foam. You will be offered it constantly, and accepting is part of the hospitality. You can ask for less sugar (shwiya sukkar). Fresh orange juice is cheap and excellent, and avocado or mixed-fruit smoothies are popular. Alcohol is available in licensed hotels and some restaurants, but not in most local cafes, and should be drunk discreetly.
Eating tips for travellers
- Vegetarians are well catered for with vegetable tagines, couscous, lentils and salads. Vegan travellers should ask about butter (smen) and meat stock.
- Spice: Moroccan food is aromatic rather than fiery. Harissa is served on the side if you want heat.
- Water: drink bottled or filtered water and be a little careful with raw salads for the first days.
- Bread is sacred in Moroccan culture: never throw it away, and do not be surprised to see someone pick up a dropped piece and set it aside.
- Prices: a tagine in a local cafe costs roughly 50 to 80 MAD; in tourist restaurants it can be two or three times that.
Planning when to go? Food is part of it, as Ramadan changes restaurant hours; our Morocco weather by month guide helps with the rest. For tipping in cafes and restaurants, see our guide to tipping in Morocco, and for the story behind many of these dishes, read about Berber culture and nomad life in the Sahara.
Taste your way to the Sahara
A desert journey with us is also a food journey, from the pastilla of Fes to madfouna in Rissani and tagine under the stars. Join our 4-day Marrakech to Fes desert tour, and tell us about any dietary needs when you contact our team; we will make sure every meal works for you.
