Western Sahara

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Al Aych

Al Aych is a Sahrawi barley porridge: dchicha is boiled until soft, then enriched with sweet milk, dahan, butter, or olive oil.

🇲🇷Mauritania

Al-keçra

Flat galette of wheat or barley flour cooked in an oven or buried in hot sand (hofra); the everyday bread of Moor nomads, eaten torn and soaked in meat sauce or stew; the sand-baking method gives a distinctive earthy flavour.

🇲🇦Morocco

Amlou

أملو

Ground almonds blended with culinary argan oil and honey into a glossy Moroccan spread.

🇲🇦Morocco

Argan Oil

زيت الأركان

Nutty culinary oil pressed from Moroccan argan kernels and used in cooking, dipping, and amlou.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Arroz con pescado

Nicaraguan rice cooked with fish, tomato, onion, and coconut or annatto, a coastal specialty.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Atay (Mint Tea)

أتاي

Green tea steeped with fresh mint and poured sweet from a long-spouted pot into small glasses.

🇲🇦Morocco

Baghrir (Thousand-Hole Pancakes)

بغرير

Yeasted semolina pancakes cooked on one side so hundreds of tiny holes open across the surface.

🇲🇦Morocco

Batbout (Pocket Bread)

بطبوط

Small Moroccan griddle breads puffed into pockets, served plain or split around a savoury filling.

🇲🇦Morocco

Bissara

بصارة

A thick puree of dried fava beans, garlic, cumin, and olive oil served hot as a Moroccan soup-like dish.

🇪🇭Adrar-Tagant (Date Oases / Taguella), Western Sahara

Boulghmane

Dgig lmegli

Boulghmane is toasted barley flour mixed with sugar, salt, water, and clarified butter or camel-hump fat into a dense paste or hand-formed balls, a western-Sahara pastoral travel food.

🇲🇦Morocco

Brik

بريك

Thin malsouka pastry folded around egg, tuna, potato, capers, or herbs and fried until the shell shatters.

🇲🇦Morocco

Briouat

بريوات

Crisp warqa pastry parcels filled with savoury meat, seafood, cheese, or sweet nuts and honey.

🇲🇦Morocco

Brochettes

بروشيت

Moroccan skewers of marinated meat grilled over coals, commonly minced kefta or small chicken pieces.

🇲🇷Eastern Mauritania (Hodh / Assaba Pastoral), Mauritania

Camel Milk

Lebben

Lebben is the named Mauritanian camel-milk drink: fresh or lightly curdled milk with a thin, frothy texture, slightly salty-sweet flavour, and a tangy fermented form served in pastoral communities.

🇲🇦Morocco

Chebakia

شباكية

Sesame dough twisted into flower shapes, fried, and coated in honey and orange blossom.

🇩🇿Algeria

Chorba Frik

شربة فريك

Freekeh — young wheat roasted green — simmered in a lamb and tomato broth with chickpeas, coriander and mint.

🇩🇿Algeria

Couscous

كسكس

Steamed semolina granules served with vegetables, pulses, meat, or fish; couscous has distinct preparations across North Africa.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Couscous Khoumassi

Multi-grain couscous made from five cereals: soft wheat (30-35%), durum wheat (20-25%), barley (20-25%), roasted barley (10-17%), and roasted maize (1-3%); an IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) product of the Saharan regions; a Slow Food Ark of Taste product; produced by 15 cooperatives.

🇩🇿Algeria

Deglet Nour Dates

دقلة نور

Translucent Deglet Nour dates, a named Algerian oasis product also cultivated in Tunisian groves.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Echwa

Echwa is meat from a sacrificed animal, traditionally goat or camel, cooked inside the animal’s cleaned stomach so the juices and fat baste the meat.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Ftour Laalayat

Ftour Laalayat is a named Sahrawi breakfast of roasted camel liver and meat, served in small pieces with bread and tea.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Galiat Bouchayba

Galiat Bouchayba is a Sahrawi preparation of roasted grains and rendered fat, mixed into a dense, nourishing porridge-like paste.

🇲🇦Morocco

Ghriba

غريبة

Crackled Moroccan cookies made from almond, coconut, or semolina flour with a soft, sandy centre.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Harira

حريرة

Tomato soup thickened with lentils, chickpeas, herbs, and sometimes vermicelli, finished with a little flour.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Khobz Sahrawi

Dense, round bread staple of the Sahrawi diet; traditionally baked in the embers of a fire; versatile bread served at every meal, used as a utensil to scoop up meats, stews, and sauces; the everyday bread of Western Sahara.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Khoubz Laftir

Unleavened bread prepared without salt, sugar, or yeast; only barley mixed with water, buried in a clean hole with fire above; soaked in meat sauce after baking; a nomadic bread that uses the desert itself as the oven.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Labsis

Labsis is a named Sahrawi barley-flour preparation, toasted and mixed with liquid and fat into a dense porridge eaten as a sustaining pastoral food.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Lakhlii

Camel meat cut into cord-like pieces, sun-dried, then mixed with hot melted camel fat (wanak); a symbol of generosity and the greatest honor for guests in Sahrawi culture; the preservation method allows meat to keep for months in the desert heat.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Lamriss

Lamriss is a Sahrawi drink made by stirring toasted barley flour into water, often with milk, oil, or sugar for a nourishing, lightly nutty beverage.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Lehssa

Lehssa is a simple Sahrawi barley soup: barley is simmered in water with salt until the broth is lightly thickened and nutty.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Maru we-llham

Marou wa lham

Maru we-llham is rice cooked slowly in a lightly salted meat sauce, with the meat arranged at the centre; Sahrawi and Mauritanian versions commonly use camel or other meat.

🇲🇷Adrar-Tagant (Date Oases / Taguella), Mauritania

Mauritanian Dates

Tamr

Dates grown in the oasis regions of Adrar, Tagant, Assaba, and Hodh; over 100 varieties harvested during the Guetna season (July–September); a staple energy food, eaten fresh, dried, or pressed into skins as paste for long-term storage; the date palm is central to oasis agriculture and Mauritanian hospitality.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Mechoui

مشوي

Whole lamb slow-roasted over coals until the skin is crisp and the meat pulls away from the bone.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Mreifisa

Mreifisa is a named Sahrawi meat stew of lamb, rabbit, or camel served over unleavened bread baked in hot sand; the broth is poured over the bread while the meat is served separately.

🇲🇦Morocco

Msemen

مسمن

Square layered Moroccan flatbread made by stretching, folding, and pan-frying oiled dough.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Rkid

Rkid is a Sahrawi barley preparation made by combining barley with water, milk, and oil into a soft, nourishing porridge.