Tagine Again: Vegan in Essaouira, Morocco
Sometimes, eating the same thing over and over is actually quite great.
Disclaimer: this is not a “vegan in Morocco” guide. It’s just a travel diary of my own experiences.
Morocco was on my bucket list for such a long time.
Every time I saw photos and posts by people who’d been, I made a mental note: “that’s a place I want to visit!” The colours, the culture, the sights really drew me in. I kept saving those posts to my Instagram collection of travel inspiration - the one collection I keep coming back to the most. Plus, I’d heard that Morocco was a great place for surfing, which is one of my husband’s greatest passions. So when I saw really cheap flights from London to Essaouira - a place I’d rarely heard of before - I jumped at the chance.
It was my first time travelling to the African continent and I was quite positive about vegan food prospects. Friends and acquaintances had spoken favourably of eating plant-based in Morocco - albeit they’d all gone to Marrakesh, which is obviously bigger and therefore offers more options than the relatively small seaside town of Essaouira. However, David and I were in hopeful spirits when checking in to Riad Chems Bleu, our home for the three days we were spending in this warm, windy, colourful city.
If you ever have the chance to visit Essaouira, I would 100% recommend Riad Chems Bleu. Once you find it (not an easy feat, get some location help if you can - which in turn will also be tricky unless you speak French or Arabic), you’ll be so glad you picked this riad. It is absolutely gorgeous - the rooms are stunning, super-clean and beautifully fragranced. The communal areas look like the photo below. The staff speak English (not always a given in Essaouira) and they truly go above and beyond to introduce you to the city and make you feel welcome. Plus, the breakfast is delicious - the staff understand the concept of “vegan” and offer a selection of fruit, jams, juice and Moroccan pancakes and fritters made without eggs. And a full pot of coffee every morning - what more could you ask for?
While exploring the city, I was struck by the explosion of stimuli of all senses. First of all, Essaouira is noisy. There is always music coming from somewhere, chatter, hollering, cars, someone driving a cart of spices. And speaking of spices, your sense of smell will get absolutely no breaks in this place. Smells of all kinds will hit your nostrils - prevalently coming from the spice shops, but also the many stores selling argan oil. I buy a bottle of jasmine-scented oil, and eight months later, I’m still using it as a perfume.
But above all, Essaouira is beautiful in a warm, colourful way. The vivid hues are everywhere: in the architecture, the markets, the shops, the restaurants. People’s clothes come in all kinds of intricate colours. It’s a multi-hued delight.
(Speaking of clothes: I always covered my shoulders and knees while we were in Morocco. It’s not expected and many foreigners don’t. But I felt it was respectful to.)
Our first lunch in Essaouira is at the very centrally located, meat-free spot Mandala Society. I have a vegan buddha bowl - fresh, colourful and full of veggies and quinoa. It’s not the cheapest place in town, but I would recommend. It’s not traditional Moroccan food, but we’ll get into that next.
Nothing could prepare us for the place that would become our favourite eatery in Essaouira, Tagnaoiut. This place is located very close to our riad, and we sort of stumbled across it while making our way back home. During the day, there is absolutely no sign of the place being there. All signage, menus, everything disappears, only to reappear in the evening. The warm decor and homely atmosphere entices us, and before long we’re having a delightful mint tea inside, waiting for our lentil soup followed by a vegetable tagine (a tagine - a word you’ll see repeated many times in this post - is a traditional Moroccan spicy, hot stew that can be made with meat, fish, or vegetables. It comes in a tagine pot, and many of the pots themselves are beautiful. We buy a miniature version to take home with us).
What’s special about Tagnaouit is not only the exquisite food - the vegetable tagine is flavourful and inviting - but also the unique in-house entertainment. A group of local musicians play local Gnaoua music, using traditional instruments such as the gimbri. Enjoying the hearty food while listening to this music really is an unforgettable experience. In our three days in Essaouira, we come back to Tagnaouit twice.
There is a little square nestled away among the many tiny, vibrant streets of Essaouira - I think it’s called El Khayma - where you can find several vegan or vegan-friendly restaurants. One of them Le Corail Chez Latifa, is fully vegan but is closed during our time there, so I don’t have much to say about that one. The second one, Shyadma’s Vegan Food, is where we end up eating one of my favourite tagines, the one you see in the photo above - chickpea, almond and fig. It’s sheer delight - I marvel at how easy it is for me to eat sizzling stews in the almost 30-degree heat. Somehow, it’s exactly right. We also love being served olives and Moroccan bread before every meal.
One of the curious things about Morocco is its cat population. Cats are absolutely everywhere - on the doorsteps of our riad, eating up scraps in front of restaurants, curled up in the wares at local markets. Of course, cute as this is, it’s a prime set-up for a stray-animal crisis. Cue help organisations like Help Street Animals of Morocco - a UK-based group whom we stumble upon while having dinner in the medina. This organisation focuses on sterilising and vaccinating the street cats, as well as giving them much-needed medical treatment in order to keep the cat population as healthy as possible. I would love to join this group on one of their future trips!
But back to food. Shyadma’s turns out to be closed on another day when we want to go there, so we end up at Chez Kefta (I think it’s called that - I can’t find it on any maps. It’s located right above Chez Latifa) and I’m pleased to find that despite being a lifelong loather of potatoes - I can feel the wave of unsubscribes coming on after this declaration - I do appreciate them in a tagine. This is also where we eat briouate, a type of samosa-like veggie dumplings with side salad. Hot tip: if you’re vegan, make sure your salad dressing is free from honey. Mine wasn’t.
After David’s daily surf session, we often end up at Beach & Friends - a seaside eatery where we have our only cocktail of the trip, a mojito. As a Muslim country, Morocco isn’t big on alcohol and it’s mainly served in tourist-forward places like Beach & Friends. We have a pizza there that’s quite unremarkable, but we also eat a falafel salad platter that’s amazing and even David, who isn’t a big falafel fan, is hooked. Seems like Morocco is the place to change both of our minds when it comes to our culinary dislikes.
Overall, I agree with those who say Morocco is vegan-friendly. Travelling here as a vegan requires some flexibility and adaptability, but so do most wonderful things in life. And when it comes to food, the lesson I learned from this trip (aside from “give potatoes a chance”) is that sometimes I’m quite happy eating the same dish over and over for a few days - if that dish is tagine.
Photos by me, except for those of me. Those are by David Camilli.