With spiced roasted vegetables, succulent lamb tagines, fluffy couscous and fragrant salads, the Moroccan cuisine is hearty, healthy and bursting with flavour. Whether you're a lover of the region's recipes or you just want to broaden your culinary horizons, burying yourself in a Moroccan cookbook is one of the best ways to explore this delicious cuisine.
To help you decide which to buy, we've scoured the online bookshelves of Amazon and eBay to bring you the best traditional and modern Moroccan recipe books the UK has to offer. Read on for our detailed buying guide to find out how to choose between them to ensure you end up with a well-used, well-loved book that isn't left collecting dust on the shelves!
When it comes to buying recipe books, you want to ensure that you pick one that you'll go back to time and time again. This buying guide will go through all the elements of the buying process, including experience levels and diets, to ensure that you leave with your new favourite.
The first thing you need to consider when shopping is whether or not the cookbook specifically caters to your diet. You don't want to have it arrive, only to flick through the pages and realise that you can't even eat half of the meals!
Traditional Moroccan food can be pretty heavy on the meat, but there are also many delicious vegetarian dishes out there too. If you're a vegetarian, though, we'd recommend going for a title that is entirely meat-free as a standard Moroccan cookbook will include a fair amount of meat.
Vegan meals can be even harder to find in Morocco, so getting a vegan-based Moroccan cookbook could be tricky, but not impossible. However, if you're on a gluten-free diet, you're in luck as many tagines are totally free from gluten, so you can easily focus your search around tagine cookbooks!
Recipe books differ immensely, and when you're excited about exploring a new cuisine, the last thing you want is to be put off cooking because the recipes are either too hard or too boring. It's essential that you choose a cookbook that suits your level of cooking.
Unfortunately, most cookbooks don't tend to state whether they're for beginners or experts, but a key indicator to look out for when browsing the online shelves is the number of recipes. A book that boasts over 200 recipes will probably be a bit overwhelming for a beginner, but if you've been cooking for years and are looking to branch out, the more, the merrier!
Moroccan food consists of a lot of tagines which are essentially stews cooked and served in a clay pot, but they also love utilising the humble couscous in lighter dishes. When shopping for a recipe book, you want to make sure that it caters to your style.
For instance, if you've got a bit of a sweet tooth, make sure your cookbook contains an extensive section on desserts. However, if you're hoping to bash out a full spread of dishes for dinner parties, pick a book that has multi-course meals or lots of small plates that you can serve together.
Photos of dishes are excellent in a recipe book, especially if you're not that familiar with the cuisine. They give you something to aim for presentation-wise and help you identify if your finished product is anything like it should be!
By no means is it a be-all-and-end-all, but photos definitely help beginner cooks and people new to Moroccan food. That said, if you're more of a 'throw things together and see how it turns out' kind of chef, you probably don't need images and can just work with a simple list of ingredients and a method. Choose what works best for your cooking style.
Now that you know just what to look for to find your new favourite cookbook, it's time to head on to our recommendations. Here's a list of our ultimate favourite Moroccan cookbooks to buy online.
£12.24
Diet | Vegan, vegetarian |
---|---|
Level | - |
Recipes | 34 |
Sections | - |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Kindle, paperback |
£21.45
Diet | - |
---|---|
Level | Beginner |
Recipes | 250 + |
Sections | Breakfasts, salads & vegetables, street foods & snacks, soups, savoury pastries, tagines, roasts, desserts, condiments |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Hardcover, paperback |
£3.25
Diet | - |
---|---|
Level | Beginner |
Recipes | 100 + |
Sections | Appetisers, soups, salads, savoury pastries and breads, tagines, couscous, beverages, desserts |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Paperback |
£7.72
Diet | Vegetarian |
---|---|
Level | Any |
Recipes | 65 |
Sections | Tagines, couscous, appetisers, spice blends, condiments, soups, salads, beverages |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Hardcover |
£11.58
Diet | - |
---|---|
Level | Beginner and up |
Recipes | 80 |
Sections | Breads and pastries, soups and legumes, street food, fresh & cooked salads, meats, eggs & poultry, fish & shellfish, couscous, sweets & desserts, drinks |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Kindle, hardcover |
£15.86
Diet | - |
---|---|
Level | Experienced |
Recipes | - |
Sections | Bread, desserts, couscous, tagines, meat |
Photos | No |
Formats | Hardcover, paperback |
£9.02
Diet | - |
---|---|
Level | Any |
Recipes | 100 + |
Sections | Appetisers, salads, soup, bread, fish, meat, sides, sweets, drinks |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Kindle, hardcover |
£8.55
Diet | - |
---|---|
Level | Intermediate |
Recipes | 60 + |
Sections | Lamb & beef tagines, kefta and sausage tagines, fish and seafood tagines, vegetable tagines, salads and side dishes |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Kindle, hardcover |
£10.76
Diet | - |
---|---|
Level | Any |
Recipes | 50 + |
Sections | Lamb, beef kefta and sausage, chicken and duck, fish and seafood, vegetable, couscous, salads and sides |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Kindle, hardcover |
£35.45
Diet | - |
---|---|
Level | Any |
Recipes | - |
Sections | Fish, poultry, meats, bean and vegetable dishes, desserts, drinks |
Photos | Yes |
Formats | Hardcover |
Image | 1 ![]() Paula Wolfert | 2 ![]() Ghillie Basan | 3 ![]() Ghillie Basan | 4 ![]() Mourad Lahlou | 5 ![]() Paula Wolfert | 6 ![]() Jeff Koehler | 7 ![]() Ghillie Basan | 8 ![]() Kitty Morse | 9 ![]() Andy Harris | 10 ![]() Nina Recipes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | The Food of Morocco | Tagines and Couscous | The Modern Tagine Cookbook | Mourad: New Moroccan | Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco | Morocco | Vegetarian Tagines & Couscous | Cooking at the Kasbah | A Month in Marrakesh | Moroccan Vegan Cookbook |
Features | A Hefty Book Packed With Reliable, Traditional Recipes | A Curation of the Best Tagine Recipes in the Region | Perfect the Moroccan One-Pot With 60+ Recipes | Part Childhood Memoire, Part Moroccan Cookbook | A Blend of Couscous, Recipes and History | Take a Culinary Food Tour of Morocco | A Vegetarian Coffee Table Cookbook | Learn to Cook Moroccan With Time-Saving Tips | Aimed at Beginners and With Detailed Descriptions | A Rare Find of a Vegan Moroccan Cookbook |
Price | £35.45 | £10.76 | £8.55 | £9.02 | £15.86 | £11.58 | £7.72 | £3.25 | £21.45 | £12.24 |
Diet | - | - | - | - | - | - | Vegetarian | - | - | Vegan, vegetarian |
Level | Any | Any | Intermediate | Any | Experienced | Beginner and up | Any | Beginner | Beginner | - |
Recipes | - | 50 + | 60 + | 100 + | - | 80 | 65 | 100 + | 250 + | 34 |
Sections | Fish, poultry, meats, bean and vegetable dishes, desserts, drinks | Lamb, beef kefta and sausage, chicken and duck, fish and seafood, vegetable, couscous, salads and sides | Lamb & beef tagines, kefta and sausage tagines, fish and seafood tagines, vegetable tagines, salads and side dishes | Appetisers, salads, soup, bread, fish, meat, sides, sweets, drinks | Bread, desserts, couscous, tagines, meat | Breads and pastries, soups and legumes, street food, fresh & cooked salads, meats, eggs & poultry, fish & shellfish, couscous, sweets & desserts, drinks | Tagines, couscous, appetisers, spice blends, condiments, soups, salads, beverages | Appetisers, soups, salads, savoury pastries and breads, tagines, couscous, beverages, desserts | Breakfasts, salads & vegetables, street foods & snacks, soups, savoury pastries, tagines, roasts, desserts, condiments | - |
Photos | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Formats | Hardcover | Kindle, hardcover | Kindle, hardcover | Kindle, hardcover | Hardcover, paperback | Kindle, hardcover | Hardcover | Paperback | Hardcover, paperback | Kindle, paperback |
Link |
If you're just getting into cooking or you're looking to expand your culinary horizons, there's no better way to do so than with a new recipe book. Whether you love Indian food, you want to try your hand at authentic Italian dishes or you'd like to give sushi a go, we've got plenty of articles detailing the best cookbooks that money can buy.
So there you have it! Our comprehensive guide to the best Moroccan cookbooks in town. Now, fire up the hob, invite some people over and cook up a storm of some of the tastiest, spiciest, most fragrant meals you'll ever eat.
Author: Roxy Pratley
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