What to Eat in Tunisia: 12 Dishes to Know

firas kobbi

4 hours ago

2 min read

Tunisian cooking is generous, bright with olive oil and harissa, and shaped by the sea, the desert and centuries of trade. These are the dishes worth knowing before your first meal.

1. Couscous

The national dish, and in 2020 part of a UNESCO listing shared by Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania. The Tunisian version is usually red with tomato and harissa. Along the coast, and especially in Sfax, fish couscous is a speciality.

2. Brik

A paper-thin malsouka pastry folded around a whole egg, often with tuna, parsley and capers, then fried until crisp. Eat it with your hands and try not to let the yolk escape.

3. Lablabi

A chickpea soup poured over pieces of bread and finished with cumin, harissa, olive oil and often a soft egg, tuna and capers. A working person's breakfast that everyone loves.

4. Ojja

Eggs cooked in a spicy sauce of tomatoes and peppers, often with merguez sausage or prawns. Mop it up with bread.

5. Slata mechouia

Grilled peppers, tomatoes and onions, chopped and dressed with olive oil, often topped with tuna and egg. Smoky and essential.

6. Kafteji

Fried peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and squash chopped together with egg. Served on a plate or stuffed into bread.

7. Mloukhia

A dark, slow-cooked stew made from dried jute mallow leaves and beef. It takes hours to make and is traditionally prepared for the Islamic New Year.

8. Chorba frik

A tomato soup thickened with cracked green wheat, a fixture of the Ramadan table.

9. Tunisian tajine

Not a stew but a baked egg dish, closer to a thick frittata, filled with meat, cheese and parsley and cut into squares.

10. Kammounia

A rich stew flavoured with plenty of cumin, made with beef or liver.

11. Harissa

The chilli paste on every table, made from dried peppers, garlic and spices. Tunisian harissa was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2022.

12. Fresh fish

On the coast, the simplest meal is often the best: whole grilled fish, a salad and good bread.

Photo: Meriem Mach / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0