What Is Zaalouk? The Moroccan Aubergine Salad Explained

Lift the lid on a pot of zaalouk and the smell alone carries you back, warm cumin and garlic softening into sweet tomato and smoky aubergine. In many Moroccan homes it is everyday food, made from whatever aubergines were good at the market that week and set out in a little dish for everyone to share. It is the taste of a table crowded with small plates, of bread passed hand to hand, of a meal that begins slowly and generously.

Part of its charm is how personal it is. No two families make it quite the same way, one leaning on more garlic, another on more chilli, another mashing it smooth while the next leaves it chunky. To make a bowl far from home is to cook the way an aunt or a grandmother did, and to offer it to a guest is to hand them a little of Morocco to scoop up with their bread.

What Zaalouk Is

Zaalouk is one of the best loved cooked salads of Moroccan cooking, a soft, savoury blend of aubergine and tomato that sits somewhere between a salad, a dip and a relish. Despite the word salad, nothing in it is raw. The vegetables are cooked slowly until they collapse into a thick, spoonable mixture, rich with olive oil and warm spices. It is one of the small cooked salads that open a Moroccan meal, served alongside others in little dishes so everyone can help themselves. Simple, humble and full of flavour, it turns two everyday vegetables into something people remember long after the meal. It belongs to the same family of dishes as much other Moroccan food, where vegetables, olive oil and spice do most of the work.

How Zaalouk Is Made

Zaalouk starts with aubergine and ripe tomato, cooked down together until soft. The aubergine is usually peeled or partly peeled, chopped or diced, and either fried, roasted or simmered until it turns meltingly tender. The tomato is cooked alongside it, often skinned, until it breaks down into a thick sauce. Into this go plenty of garlic and a good pour of olive oil, along with the warm spices that define the dish, cumin and paprika above all, with fresh coriander and a little chilli or a pinch of hot pepper for gentle heat. Everything is simmered together, then roughly mashed or stirred so the mixture holds together in a soft, jammy tangle rather than staying in neat pieces. Some cooks finish it with a squeeze of lemon or a scattering of extra herbs. The result is deeply savoury, slightly smoky from the aubergine, and bright from the tomato and spice.

How to Eat Zaalouk

Zaalouk is eaten warm or cold, and both are correct. Most often it is served at room temperature or gently warm, scooped straight from the bowl with torn pieces of Moroccan bread, which is the traditional way rather than using a fork. It appears as a starter or a side, and it is a regular member of the spread of small cooked salads that begins many Moroccan meals, sitting happily next to dishes seasoned with harissa or brightened with preserved lemon. It also makes a fine light lunch on its own with plenty of bread, and it works as a side to grilled meat, fish or tagine. Because it keeps well and often tastes even better the next day once the flavours have settled, it is a handy dish to make ahead.

Where to Buy Zaalouk Ingredients in the UK

Everything zaalouk needs is easy to find in the UK. Aubergines and tomatoes are stocked by every supermarket, but African, Caribbean and Middle Eastern food shops often sell them cheaper and riper, along with the good olive oil, fresh coriander and the ground cumin and paprika that carry the dish. If you want the warmth turned up, the same shops sell hot pepper and chilli, and many carry harissa and preserved lemon for the wider Moroccan table. You can find African food stores near you that stock these ingredients, and the staff are usually glad to point you to the spices they rate. With a couple of aubergines, some ripe tomatoes and a well stocked spice shelf, a bowl of zaalouk is within easy reach at home.