Moroccan Jewish cuisine is a testament to the country's rich cultural heritage, blending Jewish and Moroccan traditions. It combines elements of local Moroccan cuisine with culinary traditions brought by Jews from other locations and adheres to Jewish dietary laws (kashrut). This cuisine holds social and familial significance, especially during Shabbat and holiday meals, featuring complex dishes and festive meals.
Unknown to many, Morocco has a long history with Judaism. The history of Judaism in Morocco dates back over 2,000 years to Amazigh Jews in the Atlas Mountains. Even then, these indigenous people of the region most likely converted to Judaism after having contact with others through trading routes. The first group migrated after the destruction of the Second Temple, and the second wave came from Spain in 1492 after the Alhambra Decree. Until the late 1940s, at least 10% of Morocco’s population was Jewish, with over 250,000 people. Today, there are fewer than 5,000 Jews living in Morocco, with small pockets in Casablanca and Fes. While Moroccan Jewry left a large cultural footprint on Morocco, nowadays Jewish Moroccan heritage and cuisine is mostly confined to the Moroccan population living in Israel today.
Moroccan Jewish food is nearly identical to traditional Moroccan food, though it must also be kosher. Interestingly, the majority of Moroccan recipes are kosher without needing any alterations. It’s interesting to note that the foods and traditions of Ashkenazi (European) Jews and Sephardic (Middle Eastern) Jews are different. You likely won’t find a latke on a Moroccan Jewish Hanukkah table (but you may find ma’akouda). Couscous, dafina, tagines, and briouats (or pastellitos) are all potential meals for the week.
Influences and Ingredients
The Moroccan Jewish cuisine was influenced by various culinary traditions, both regional and foreign. In central Morocco, particularly in cities such as Fez, Rabat, and Meknes, the cuisine was shaped by the royal court's culinary style, which blended Andalusian and Arab influences. In northern Morocco, places like Tangier and Tetouan experienced Spanish culinary influence, characterized by the use of many herbs, tomatoes, and lemons. The southern areas, including the town of Mogador, were influenced by local Berber cuisine. Mogador was particularly renowned for its culinary excellence, benefiting from trade that brought in almonds and spices from the East. Local Jewish women became famous for their expertise in making sweets, such as marzipan, jams, preserved fruits, cookies, and cakes for holidays and special events.
Kashrut also heavily influenced Moroccan Jewish cuisine. Muslims frequently used semneh, a non-kosher spicy butter. In adherence to Kashrut, Jews ensured their cooking tools were kosher, separated meat and dairy, and those who could not obtain kosher dairy did not consume it.
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Spices and herbs are a central feature of Moroccan Jewish cuisine and include cinnamon bark; seeds such as caraway, cumin, and fennel; and pods like cardamom, broad beans, and peas. Commonly used spices in Jewish Moroccan cuisine include saffron, turmeric, marjoram, cinnamon, ginger, hot pepper, dried and fresh cilantro, cumin, mace (kosht), lemon verbena, lemon balm, mint, and wormwood. Historically, olive oil was the primary oil for salads and cold dishes, while peanut oil and argan oil (from trees grown near Mogador) were used for cooking.
A vibrant display of spices in a Moroccan souk.
Signature Dishes
Among the famous dishes are couscous, spicy fish (known as dagra), tagine, and salads. Basic ingredients include a variety of spices, legumes, vegetables, and fish. The Jews of Morocco historically used a wide variety of vegetables, including potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, scallions, onions, fava beans, peas, fennel, celery, artichokes, eggplants, tomatoes, cauliflower, green and white beans, sweet and spicy peppers, zucchini, olives, and truffles, to accompany meat, chicken, fish, and stews, as well as in fresh and cooked salads, preservation, and pickling.
Pastilla
Pastilla is a traditional chicken pastry, which balances sweet and savory elements with a combination of tender and crunchy textures. Historically, it traces back to a 13th-century Andalusian pigeon stew that migrated to Morocco, where it evolved into a pie called bastiya. Over time, chicken replaced pigeon meat, and the dish became characterized by its use of delicate pastry sheets called "warqa," along with a dusting of powdered sugar and cinnamon. In the Jewish Moroccan cuisine of Casablanca, pastilla includes browned onions in the filling. Modern Israeli adaptations sometimes use filo sheets and shape the dish into cigars.
Tagine
One of the most popular Moroccan Jewish dishes is tagine, a slow-cooked stew that is traditionally cooked in a clay pot of the same name. Cleaned sardines are mixed with spices to create a meatball tajine that is a favorite in Morocco.
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Matbucha
Matbucha is a Moroccan dish, especially popular in the Moroccan Jewish community, which was once large and thriving in North Africa. When good numbers of Moroccan Jews migrated to Israel, they brought their love of this dish with them and it is now wildly popular in Israel too.
Matbucha is an Arabic word that means “cooked salad". Cooked salad may seem odd to Western thinking except for the fact that most of us actually eat lots of cooked salads, such as potato salad and egg salad too. We just don’t think of them as “cooked salads,” but that’s what they are.
Matbucha is vibrantly tasty, easy to cook and is ideal for Shabbat because, even though it’s cooked, you can serve it at room temperature. Use it as a salad course or as a side dish with dinner. I’ve always served it with hors d’oeuvre, as a topping for crackers or pita wedges (it works well with other Middle Eastern nibbles and dips such as hummus, raheb, baba ghanoush and so on). You can make Matbucha 3-4 days ahead.
Matbucha Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 large red bell peppers
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 serrano pepper, deseeded and chopped
- 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 6 medium tomatoes peeled and finely chopped
- 1-1/2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
Instructions:
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- Preheat the broiler. Place the peppers under the broiler, about 4-6" away from the heat, and broil for 2-3 minutes, until the skin has blistered. Turn the peppers and repeat this process until the entire surface is blistered and lightly charred.
- Remove the peppers and place them in a paper bag. Let rest at least 10 minutes.
- Remove the peppers from the bag, peel off the skin and discard the stem and the seeds. Cut the peppers into pieces.
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the peppers, serrano pepper and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, paprika, sugar and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
- Cook for 30-35 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thick.
Shabbat and Holiday Traditions
Jewish dishes in Morocco hold social and familial significance, centering around Shabbat and holiday meals, which feature complex dishes and festive meals. Sabbath and holiday meals typically began with mezze, or qamia, consisting of 6-8 types of salads, as well as pickled vegetables. In Morocco, daily bread loaves were circular and those made for Shabbat and holidays were spiced with anise, creatively designed, and coated with sesame seeds. Each family had its unique bread design for recognition. These loaves were typically baked in public bakeries (frans or kushas), with adolescent messengers delivering them to homes.
For Shabbat, when they do not light fire, Moroccan Jews prepare a stew, called “Skina” or “Dafina,” which they cook at very low heat from Friday until Saturday at noon. Each cook has her own recipe, but typically Skhina includes meat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, chickpeas, and eggs. It can be complemented with savory or sweet stuffing and chickpea soup. The Shabbat lunch begins with wine and homemade bread, over which a prayer is said. Moroccan Jews sometimes complete the meal with mahia, a very strong eau de vie made from figs, dates or grapes.
Other holidays require special foods. For Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), meals include apples and honey, seven vegetables and a sheep’s head, pomegranates and other fruit, as well as green dates. At the end of the Yom Kippur fast, Moroccan Jews eat a special holiday bread made with almonds, a rich meal and lots of cakes and pastries made from almond paste. For the holiday of Succoth, Moroccan Jews build huts decorated with fruit. Meals include couscous and bean soup.
Many Moroccans have a tradition of saying 100 blessings a day, and due to there being fewer blessings in morning prayers on Shabbat, Moroccans have a special custom of making a full appetizer course to start their meal. In most Jewish traditions, people eat their meal freely after having made the blessing over bread. Moroccans, on the contrary, make kiddush on wine and then make a blessing on each appetizer and salad before the blessing on the bread.
Hanukkah
وصفة سفنج ناجحة - Moroccan donuts - Beignets marocains - Sfenj
For Hanukkah, the special food is beignets or sfenj (doughnuts). In Israel, the tradition of eating fried foods on Hanukkah (to commemorate the miracle of the oil in the Hanukkah story) has come to mean doughnuts above all else-particularly sufganiyot. But for Moroccan Jews, sfenj are the Hanukkah doughnut of choice.
Coming from the Arabic word meaning “sponge,” sfenj resemble other ring-shaped doughnuts, but with a more rustic, freeform shape. Their texture is also noticeably different-an almost brittle, crispy outside countered by an airy texture within. Instead of being frosted or filled with jam, they are served with sugar, honey, or simple syrup for dipping and drizzling. Sfenj are popular throughout Morocco. “If you are a Moroccan Muslim, you will typically eat them year round for breakfast, without the sugar. “In Morocco, sfenj are also a common street food.
For Moroccan Jews, however, they are primarily Hanukkah fare. In Israel, sfenj are rarely, if ever, found next to sufganiyot in bakeries. “The flavor and texture don’t last long, so you want to eat them within a half an hour of frying,” they are commonly made at home during the eight nights of the holiday.
Mimouna
The special Moroccan Jewish holiday of Mimouna ends the Passover festival. Frequently, Muslim friends and colleagues bring bread and pastry products to the homes of Jews. Jewish families fill their tables with foods and other items that symbolize the end of Passover, with its prohibition on consuming leavened products. These items include; milk, whey, butter, honey, fruit, flowers, fig tree branches, wheat, a whole fish, and five beans on top of flour.
Mimouna tables are traditionally adorned with wheat stalks, mint leaves, and flowers, along with a wide bowl of flour containing five gold coins symbolizing luck (hamsa), alongside five green bean bags and five dates. Served on them are sweet treats like coconut desserts, caramel, marzipan, jams, dried and fresh fruits, nuts, and various candies. The centerpiece is the "Mofletta," a thin pancake prepared at the end of the holiday, the first bread after Passover, piled in heaps at the center of the festive table. Diners spread it with butter and honey, and roll it into small rolls.
A Mimouna celebration table adorned with traditional symbols and treats.
Contemporary Influences
Today, Israel is home to nearly 1 million Jews from Morocco, more than any other country. And it is within these communities that Moroccan Hanukkah traditions still thrive. Meanwhile, many families come from blended backgrounds and include food traditions from several different cultures.
For people who live far from their Moroccan families in Israel, Hanukkah offers an opportunity to connect and inspire others. The Arazis regularly host dinners and cooking events as a way of introducing customers and friends to lesser-known Middle Eastern and North African dishes-like sfenj, popletas, and the chicken levivot. Kushner started Liora’s Catering because she missed the tastes of home and caters several Hanukkah events in the Boston area and include several Moroccan-influenced recipes on her menus. If clients ask, she will even make sfenj, which she personally fries to order at the event so they can be eaten fresh.
Books on Moroccan Jewish Cuisine
- “Moroccan Jewish Cookery,” by Viviane and Nina Moryoussef.
- “I Thought I’d Never Taste This Again: Cuisine of Sephardic Morocco,” by Mercedes Castiel
- “Grandma Elmaleh’s Moroccan Cookbook,” by Lisa Elmaleh Craig.
- “Cuisine Juive Marocaine,” by Rosa Amar (for those who read French).
