Moroccan Salad Dressings

In a land where the olive is plentiful, olive oil is relatively inexpensive as a result, and Moroccans use great quantities of delicious fruity olive oil in their cooking and in their salads. Guests of mine have exclaimed over the flavour and consistency of the local virgin olive oil, declaring it ‘good enough to drink’. A slight exaggeration, perhaps, but indicates its flavour.

Salad dressings use an inordinately greater quantity of chopped garlic, flat-leafed (Italian) parsley and fresh green coriander – as well as a heady seasoning of Moroccan spices – hot red and sweet red peppers and, sometimes, a hint of cinnamon and ground cumin – to spark up the combinations of vegetables. There is a large selection of varied dressings attached to individual recipes, but the following is a favourite.