Spices & flavour
What is harissa?
- Type
- Hot chilli paste
- Base
- Dried chillies, garlic, olive oil
- Spices
- Cumin, coriander, caraway
- Used as
- Condiment, added to taste
Quick answer
Harissa is a hot red chilli paste from North Africa, made by pounding rehydrated dried chillies with garlic, salt, olive oil and warm spices like cumin, coriander and caraway. Deep red, garlicky and fiery, it's used as a condiment — stirred into soups, brushed on grills, mixed with oil for dipping — and is the main source of heat in Moroccan food.
The one hot thing on the table
In a cuisine that is warmly spiced but rarely chilli-hot, harissa is the exception — the concentrated red paste that lets anyone who wants heat add it. It's made by soaking dried red chillies, then pounding or blending them with garlic, salt and olive oil into a thick, glossy paste. Warm spices — usually cumin, coriander and caraway — round it out, and some versions add tomato, rose or smoked chilli. The result is fiery, garlicky and deeply savoury, with the fruitiness of the chillies underneath the heat.
Our harissa spice page breaks down the chilli varieties and spice ratios, and explains why homemade harissa tastes so much livelier than the dull tube you might have tried abroad.
North African, used across Morocco
Harissa's heartland is Tunisia, where it's practically a national condiment, but it's used throughout the Maghreb, Morocco included. In Morocco it tends to be a supporting player rather than the star: a spoonful stirred into harira soup, smeared on grilled brochettes and merguez sausage, worked into marinades, or simply thinned with olive oil as a dip for bread.
Because Moroccan cooks generally keep the pot itself mild — see is Moroccan food spicy — harissa is how heat is delivered à la carte. That's a feature, not a gap: one dish can serve a chilli-averse child and a heat-seeker at the same time.
How to use it
Treat harissa like a strong condiment, not a cooking sauce to slather on. Start with a small amount — a quarter-teaspoon stirred into a bowl of soup or a dab on the side of your plate — and build up. It's excellent mixed with olive oil and lemon as a dressing, whisked into couscous broth, rubbed onto meat and fish before grilling, or spread thinly in a sandwich. A little transforms roasted vegetables and eggs.
If you buy some to take home, know that quality varies hugely: artisanal harissa from a good souk merchant is fragrant and complex, while cheap versions can be one-note and salty. Buy from a shop that sells to locals, or make your own.
Where to find good harissa in Marrakech
The spice souk is the obvious source, and a knowledgeable merchant will let you taste before you buy. A spice souk tour is the safest route to a genuinely good one, and any street-food tour — like the brochette tour — will show you harissa doing its real job alongside charcoal-grilled meat.
To learn to make it, a fish and chermoula class or a hands-on street-food cooking class usually covers the chilli-paste condiments, and you'll want to know the difference between harissa and the herby, un-hot chermoula.
Related questions
How hot is harissa?
Genuinely hot, but not extreme — comparable to a strong chilli sauce. Heat varies by the chillies used. Because it's a condiment you add to taste, you control how much fire ends up in your food.
Is harissa Moroccan or Tunisian?
It's North African, most strongly associated with Tunisia, but used across the Maghreb including Morocco. In Morocco it's more of a side condiment than a core cooking ingredient.
What's the difference between harissa and chermoula?
Harissa is a hot chilli paste used as a condiment. Chermoula is a herby marinade of coriander, garlic, cumin and lemon, typically for fish, and is not hot. They're completely different.
Is harissa vegan?
Traditional harissa — chillies, garlic, olive oil, spices — is vegan. Check labels on commercial jars, as a few add non-vegan extras, but the authentic paste is plant-based.