Vegetables

It is hard to believe that before Cortes discovered Mexico, there were no tomatoes, green and red peppers, potatoes and sweet potatoes in Moroccan cooking. But these colourful vegetables, so evident in Moroccan cooking today, did not appear until the sixteenth century.

Moroccan vegetables are cooked in the same manner as meats, fish and poultry: with diced or grated onion, peeled, seeded and diced tomato, finely chopped garlic, chopped flat-leafed (Italian) parsley and fresh coriander. Salt, pepper, sweet red and hot red peppers are added to these tasty dishes, with sometimes a hint of saffron or cumin added for extra savour. These are superb vegetable dishes in the Mediterranean manner, well worthy to be a course on their own, and, of course, wonderful too as accompanying vegetable dishes to complement roasts or grills of lamb, beef or poultry.