7 Moroccan Scratch Cooking Hacks from the Western Kingdom

I married into a Moroccan family and it took me quite a while to learn the complex cooking techniques every Moroccan woman seems to have been born knowing. As an American, it seemed that many of the steps were unnecessary. Who wants to knead dough for twenty minutes when two minutes is boring enough? Why do I have to core carrots and peel tomatoes? Why does meat have to be cooked until it falls apart when popular recipes call for twenty-minute chicken?

I have reluctantly learned to scratch cook Moroccan food, and some of the hacks I have picked up from my mother-in-law might work for Italian, vegan, and American cooks as well. Here are seven scratch cooking hacks from a real Moroccan kitchen that will save you time without compromise.

1. Pre chop cilantro and parsley

Every single Moroccan recipe calls for both cilantro and parsley. I buy it fresh from the grocery store, a few bunches at a time. Chop it up as soon as you return home, put it in a Tupperware and put it in the freezer. This makes fresh herbs as simple as the dried kind.

2. Pre mince Garlic

Fifty percent of all Moroccan recipes call for minced garlic. You can peel two entire bulbs at once, drop all the cloves into a food processor and mince them easily. Put the garlic in a jar and cover with olive oil. It will keep in the fridge for several weeks, and your next garlic recipe will be so much easier!

3. Pre make tomato sauce

My mother-in-law explained that tomato sauce was made for winter when tomatoes would no longer be available in the stores. Chop two dozen tomatoes, add a bit of olive oil, onion and some spices (I use paprika, turmeric and cumin) salt & pepper. Boil until the tomatoes disintegrate. Put in jars and store in the fridge for a few days. Or put in freezer bags and store in the freezer. This will make your next Lasagna (or Meatball Tagine) much easier!

4. Parboil beans & chickpeas

Want to make hummus, salad or beans, but don’t want to use canned food? You can parboil dried beans and chickpeas until they are just soft. Cool and freeze in pre-portioned bags. That way, the next recipe that calls for beans will be just as fast as reaching for a can.

5. Pre-portion meat

Once you get meat home from the grocery store (or the halal meat vendor), portion it out into meal sized amounts. Freeze what you won’t eat today or tomorrow, that will save any meat from going bad.

6. Use the slow cooker

The slow cooker is not technically an item that my mother-in-law has, but it is worth its weight in gold, in my opinion. I learned how to make beef tagine in the slow cooker, and it saves me hours of work in the kitchen. There are millions of books about slow cooking recipes. I have found that I can approximate Moroccan recipes by frying the onions before I put them in the crockpot, thereby rescuing the flavor.

7. Save stock

Every time you cook chicken or beef, save the stock. Save bones to make stock, boil them in water and add spices (I use, you guessed it, paprika, turmeric and cumin). Use to make your next soup or gravy and toss out that sodium filled can.

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Gretchen Lovett is a freelance writer/stay at home mom living in North Carolina. She helps several wonderful nonprofits apply for grants and ghostwrites ebooks when she is not in the kitchen. She is not on social media. You can reach Gretchen at elhassanigretchen@gmail.com.