Vegan Delights and Travel Itinerary in Morocco

We visited Morocco a few months before the country was hit by a terrible earthquake. You can find our thoughts about it here.

• Vegan food in Morocco
• Our itinerary, accommodation and restaurants
  

Finding vegan food in Morocco

The Moroccan cuisine offers many “accidentally vegan” dishes, which means there is no need to limit yourself to vegan/vegetarian only restaurants, because you can get lucky almost everywhere. Plus, the majority of the people are insanely friendly and accommodating and will do their best to adapt a meal to your needs.

Let’s have a look at some typical local dishes that you can find almost everywhere.

• Tagine: A tagine is actually named after the clay pot in which it is cooked and – yay – the vegetable version is totally vegan! And sooo delicious – it is slow-cooked and, because the pot is covered, it accentuates the flavours of each vegetable. A must try local experience!
  
• Couscous: From a local cookbook we learned that for authentic Moroccan results, the couscous is steamed in 3 phases! (Walk of shame for all the times we called a 5-min-dish “Couscous”). You can come across the Couscous with Seven Vegetables in every restaurant, but it will always be prepared in a slightly different ways and with different veggies. In fact, we probably had couscous 3-4 days in a row and were always surprised at how every dish had its own unique taste. So don’t be afraid of repeating the same meals, we can assure you that it won’t get boring! Some traditional cookbooks add butter to the recipe, so to be sure to get a vegan version, it’s better to ask beforehand how the couscous is prepared. As already mentioned, the people in Morocco are super friendly and accommodating and will be quick to offer an alternative if necessary.
  
• Mezze: Mezze means small plates – and the good news is, they mostly contain salads, almost all of which are vegan! Among the ones we tried, we had eggplants, chickpeas, tomatoes, peppers and beans. If you visit a restaurant, just ask for vegan salads and let yourself be surprised.
  
• Berber pizza: A traditional dish that is oven prepared with lamb or beef, but whenever we asked, it was never a problem to leave out the meat. The vegan version is a flavourful meal with onions, spices and herbs inside.
  
• Msemmen: The Moroccan flatbread is served for breakfast at many places. Although the original recipe is vegan, some places might add butter, so be sure to ask beforehand.
  
• Fruits and nuts: Fruits are found everywhere in Morocco and can be a good option for vegans to order for dessert in restaurants. On top of that, fruits and nuts, fresh from the market, often served us as a quick and healthy snack throughout the day.

Itinerary

And now let’s have a look at our itinerary: