Tunisian Cuisine - Other Popular Foods and Recipes

Other Popular Foods and Recipes

• Asida - a sweet gruel pudding.
• Baklawa - layers of thin pastry interspersed with ground pine nuts, almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios, brushed in golden butter, baked and dipped in a honey syrup.
• Bambaloni - fried sweet donut-like cake served with sugar.
• Berber-style lamb stew - A simple stew of lamb cooked with vegetables, such as potatoes and carrots, in a traditional clay pot.
• Bouza - rich and sticky sorghum puree.
• Brik - tiny parcels of minced lamb, beef, or vegetables and an egg wrapped in thin pastry and deep fried.
• Chakchouka - a vegetarian ragout similar to ratatouille with chickpeas, tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onions, served with a poached egg.
• Chorba - a seasoned broth, with pasta, meatballs, fish, etc.
• Felfel mahchi - Sweet peppers stuffed with meat, usually lamb, and served with harissa sauce.
• Fricasse - tiny sandwich with tuna, harissa, olives and olive oil. It bears no similarity to the classic continental European casserole of the same name.
• Guenaoia - Lamb or beef stew with chillies, okra, and spices.
• Houria - cooked carrot salad.
• Khobz Tabouna - traditional oven-baked bread. Tunisian Khobz Tabouna is not a flat or pita like bread.
• Koucha - shoulder of lamb cooked with turmeric and cayenne pepper.
• Lablabi - rich garlicky soup made with chickpeas.
• Langues d'oiseaux or "birds' tongues", a type of soup pasta shaped like rice grains.
• Makroudh - semolina cake stuffed with dates, cinnamon and grated orange peel.
• Masfouf - sweetened couscous, the Tunisian version of the Moroccan seffa.
• Makboubeh - tomato and pepper stew.
• Makoud - potato and meat casserole (similar to a quiche).
• Marqa - slow-cooked stews of meat with tomatoes and olives, somewhat similar in concept to the Moroccan tajine stews.
• Mechouia Salad - an hors d'oeuvre of grilled sweet peppers, tomatoes and onions mixed with oil, lemon, tuna fish and hard-boiled eggs.
• Merguez - small spicy sausages.
• Mhalbiya - cake made with rice, nuts and geranium water.
• Mloukhia - a beef or lamb stew with bay leaves, the name is from the green herb used, which produces a thick gravy that has a mucilaginous (somewhat "slimy") texture, similar to cooked okra.
• Noicer pasta - very thin, small squares of pasta made with semolina and all-purpose flour, flavoured with Tunisian Bharat, a blend of ground cinnamon and dried rosebuds.
• Ojja - scrambled egg dish made of tomatoes and mild green chillies supplemented with various meats and harissa.
• Osbane - pieces of animal gut stuffed with meat and offal, a speciality from Monastir.
• Tunisian Salad - diced cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, onions and seasoned with olive oil. Maybe garnished with olives, eggs and tuna. Analogous to the French Niçoise salad and Greek salad.
• Samsa - layers of thin pastry alternated with layers of ground roast almonds, and sesame seeds, baked in lemon and rosewater syrup.
• Zitounia - ragout of veal or other meats simmered in a tomato sauce and onions, flavoured with olives.
• Torshi - turnips marinated with lime juice.
• Yo-yo - donuts made with orange juice, deep fried, then dipped in honey syrup.
• Harissa - Harissa is a traditional Tunisian hot chilli paste.