For Moroccans, iftar has to be the fanciest meal of the year. Each day of Ramadan, Moroccan families try to make the Iftar a little bit better than the day before.
Ramadan is the perfect time to showcase the best of what Moroccan cuisine has to offer. If you’re a foodie, Ramadan is the best time to visit Morocco. And if you love to experiment, you’ll find many interesting Moroccan iftar foods that you can adopt.
Some foods stand out as Ramadan special. They're the meals that you find at every Ramadan table in Morocco. Here’s the list of the most iconic Moroccan Ramadan food.
To get more information regarding Ramadan 2022, you can also visit our page dedicated to everything about Ramadan!
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There’s nothing wrong with plain dates. However, for Moroccans, they’re not enough during Ramadan and other special occasions. Moroccans love to have something inside of the date. In this case, nuts and almonds are the common stuffing. Stuffed dates taste way better, and they’re extra nutritious.
Harira, or simply Moroccan soup, is a meal that Moroccans can’t miss during Ramadan. After starting with something sweet and a salty snack, accompanied by a milkshake or mint tea, Moroccans usually go for the harira with bread and boiled eggs.
Harira is a zesty soup, prepared with many ingredients, predominately tomatoes, chickpeas, lentils, fresh herbs, chopped meat, and spices. One bowl of harira is never enough because it’s super tasty and rich with flavors.
Here’s the Harira recipe if you’re interested in trying it.
The Moroccan chebakia sweets are a Ramadan special. Moroccan ladies usually collectively save money to buy the ingredients of chebakia that they give to the women in the neighborhood who are the best at making it. Also, the shops that specify in pastries all make chebakia for Ramadan.
Chebakia is stripes of dough rolled to resemble a rose or an eye. They are deep-fried, dipped in honey, and garnished with sesame seeds. Chebakia goes very well with harira. The salty/sour taste of harira gets balanced very well in the mouth when accompanied with chebakia.
Image Credit: Christian Muise, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Briouat are tasty pastry triangles that are stuffed with something inside. Moroccans always have them on the iftar table. Basically, there are two major categories of briouat: the sweet and the salty.
The sweet briouat are usually stuffed with almond or peanut paste mixed with orange flower water, and dipped in honey. Their salty counterparts are usually bigger in size. They are stuffed with meat and vegetables or sometimes mashed potatoes and olives. Meat can either be seafood, chicken, or ground red meat.
Stuffed bread in all of its shapes and sizes is a standard of Ramadan food in Morocco. Be it the traditional Khobz B’Chehma, chicken-stuffed bread, or the more contemporary French-inspired Chausson pastries, Moroccan iftar tables need to have at least two types.
Stuffed bread is very nutritious, as it has vegetables, olives, spices, and of course meat as a source of protein.
Traditional Moroccan ladies always prepare Sellou during the month before Ramadan. Sellou is certainly one of the most iconic iftar foods in Morocco. Prepared with a multitude of ingredients such as almonds, peanuts, flour, and several seeds, sellou is a nutritious meal that tastes very rich.
While not eaten every day throughout the whole month, kebab barbecue is an essential Ramadan food in Morocco, especially during the two venerated days of Ramadan. The first is the 15th day, and the second is Layla Tulqadr. Typical traditional families sacrifice cattle during these two holy days of Ramadan.
Moroccan kebab barbecue is prepared with either chopped lamb, goat, turkey, or beef meat, seasoned with onions, and parsley, and spiced with ginger, paprika, turmeric, and black pepper. All of the ingredients interact to give the kebab such an unforgettable smell and taste.
Image Credit: zaama09 from région parisienne, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
There are two types of Moroccan pancakes that you won’t see a Moroccan miss in their iftar table (at least one). One is a regular-shaped tender pancake, and the other is a square-shaped layered pancake. Beghrir and Msemen are usually accompanied by melted honey and butter or olive oil.
While not a standard throughout the whole country like harira for example, fried fish during iftar is a meal that millions of Moroccans enjoy eating during Ramadan. The people who live in the coastal areas are all about fish. Eating crunchy fried fish always tastes good after a long day of fasting. The most common types are sardines, pageot, white seabream, and sole.
As the most recognizable Moroccan beverage, mint tea is the best refreshment after a day of fasting. Made using the so-called Chinese gunpowder tea with fresh leaves of spearmint, the aroma of Moroccan mint tea is irresistible. One could say that Moroccans are addicted to mint tea.
Ramadan is as personal of an experience as it is a communal one. In Morocco, it’s very crucial to eat within a community because the Ramadan table is at its best when family members and friends are surrounding it.
Check out the HalalTrip blog for more information about Ramadan.
If you’re looking for nearby Halal Restaurants where you can enjoy Iftar with your loved ones, check out the HalalTrip app. The app will also give you directions to the nearby mosques, prayer time, the qibla direction, dua for traveling, and plenty of other things you'll surely appreciate.
Cover Photo by Danae Tsoutreli on Unsplash
