Salads & cooked mezze
Shlada (Moroccan Tomato & Cucumber Salad)
شلاضة · shlada
Shlada is Morocco's everyday raw salad: ripe tomato, cucumber, green pepper and onion finely diced and tossed with olive oil, lemon juice and fresh herbs. Where dishes like zaalouk and taktouka are cooked down soft, shlada stays crisp and bright, offering a fresh, crunchy counterpoint at the start of nearly any Moroccan meal.
- Origin
- Across Morocco
- Type
- Raw chopped salad
- Eaten at
- Starter, every meal, mezze table
- Key flavour
- Fresh tomato, lemon, olive oil, herbs
What Shlada is
Ripe tomato, cucumber, green pepper and onion are finely diced by hand and dressed simply with olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar, salt and a generous handful of chopped coriander and parsley — no cooking at all, unlike most of the mezze table.
The dice is kept small and even, and the salad is served just after it's made so the vegetables stay crisp rather than turning watery; a good shlada is judged as much by the quality of the knife work as the ingredients.
Origin & story
Shlada, sometimes simply called 'salade marocaine' on restaurant menus, is the plain, universal counterpart to Morocco's more elaborate cooked salads — a dish so basic and constant that it barely needs explaining to a Moroccan diner, appearing at nearly every lunch and dinner table.
Its simplicity is exactly the point: fresh vegetables, good olive oil and lemon need nothing more, and the salad's crunch and acidity provide a necessary contrast to the softer, richer cooked dishes that dominate a Moroccan meal.
Key ingredients at a glance
- Ripe tomato
- Cucumber
- Green pepper
- Onion
- Olive oil and lemon juice
- Fresh coriander and parsley
This is a flavour snapshot, not a recipe.
When & how it's eaten
Shlada is served cold, right at the start of a meal alongside the cooked salads, eaten with a fork or scooped with bread, and it is one of the few Moroccan starters eaten as-is with no sauce to soak up.
It also appears constantly as a side to grilled meats like brochettes and kefta, cutting through the richness of charcoal-grilled food.
Regional variations
Some versions add a little preserved lemon or olives; others keep it strictly plain. The dice size and the ratio of vegetables shift by household, and a version with grated carrot is also common.
It stands apart from the cooked-salad family — zaalouk, taktouka, bakoula — as the one raw, crunchy dish on an otherwise softly cooked mezze table.
Where to try it in Marrakech
Shlada is on virtually every restaurant menu in Marrakech, from the simplest café to the grandest riad, usually served alongside the cooked salads or as an accompaniment to grilled meat.
A Moroccan salads and mezze class covers both raw and cooked salads together — read more about the full mezze spread in the guides.
Frequently asked questions
What is shlada in Moroccan cuisine?
A raw, finely diced salad of tomato, cucumber, green pepper and onion, dressed simply with olive oil, lemon juice and fresh herbs.
Is shlada the same as the cooked Moroccan salads?
No — unlike zaalouk or taktouka, shlada is entirely raw and crisp, served fresh rather than simmered down soft.
What is shlada served with?
It appears at the start of most meals alongside the cooked salads, and as a classic side to grilled meats like brochettes and kefta.