Chermoula — The Moroccan Herb and Spice Marinade
Coriander, parsley, garlic, cumin and paprika pounded with lemon and olive oil. The marinade that goes on almost every fish in Morocco, and on a good deal else besides.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- —
- Total
- 15 min
- Serves
- 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
Chermoula is not a dish. It is the green paste that sits in a bowl on a Moroccan worktop waiting for something to happen to it — rubbed into fish before it goes in a tagine, spread inside sardines before they are pressed together and fried, stirred through roasted vegetables, or thinned with more oil and spooned over a plate as a sauce.
The core is always the same four things: coriander, garlic, cumin and paprika. Everything after that moves around. Coastal households lean on lemon and make it sharp; inland versions carry more cumin and sometimes saffron; some families add preserved lemon, some add a little chilli, and a few add nothing at all beyond the four.
It takes fifteen minutes, it keeps the best part of a week, and it is the single most useful thing you can have in a Moroccan fridge. Make a jar on Sunday and you have solved three dinners.
Ingredients
Makes 6 servings
Herbs and aromatics
Spices
To bring it together
Instructions
Toast the cumin
Put the cumin seeds in a dry pan over a medium heat and move them around for about 90 seconds, until they darken a shade and you can smell them across the kitchen. Tip them straight out onto a plate — they carry on cooking in a hot pan — and grind them once cool. Ready-ground cumin works, but this step is the difference most people notice.
Pound the garlic with the salt
Crush the garlic cloves in a mortar with half the salt until they turn into a smooth paste. The salt acts as the abrasive. If you are using a blender instead, still do the garlic by hand — blended garlic goes harsh and stays harsh.
Chop the herbs
Wash and dry the coriander and parsley properly, then chop them finely, stalks and all. Wet herbs will water the chermoula down and shorten how long it keeps.
Work in the spices
Add the ground cumin, paprika, ginger, the cayenne or harissa if using, and the saffron water to the garlic paste. Stir it into a thick, dark paste and let it sit for a minute so the spices take up the moisture.
Combine
Add the chopped herbs and work everything together — in the mortar if you have the patience, otherwise in a bowl with a fork. You are after a rough, textured paste. Chermoula is not a smooth purée, and the difference shows on the plate.
Lemon and oil last
Stir in the lemon juice, then the olive oil in a slow stream, then the preserved lemon rind if you are using it. Add the rest of the salt now and taste. It should be sharp, herbal and a little bitter, with the cumin arriving after the lemon rather than with it.
Rest before using
Give it fifteen minutes on the worktop. The paprika and cumin need that long to bloom in the oil, and chermoula tasted straight after mixing always tastes flatter than the same bowl a quarter of an hour later.
Cook’s notes
- Salt at the end, not the start. Salt pulls water out of the herbs, and chermoula salted early turns into a green puddle within the hour.
- A blender is fine, but pulse it — do not run it. Over-processed chermoula heats up, goes a dull army green and turns bitter. A mortar gives a better result and takes about the same time for this quantity.
- For fish: rub it on and give it 30 minutes to an hour, no more. The lemon juice starts to firm the flesh the way a ceviche does, and a fillet left in chermoula overnight comes out chalky.
- For chicken or lamb, the opposite — several hours or overnight is better, and the meat takes the spices far deeper.
- It keeps five days in the fridge in a sealed jar with a thin film of olive oil poured over the top to keep the air off. It also freezes well in an ice-cube tray, which is the most useful thing you can do with a leftover half batch.
- Preserved lemon takes it somewhere different — rounder, saltier, less sharp. Our guide to preserved lemons covers how to make and store them.
- Coriander should outweigh the parsley, not the other way round. Some households use coriander alone; almost nobody uses parsley alone.
Recipe information
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- —
- Total time
- 15 min
- Servings
- 6
- Calories
- 150 kcal per serving
- Cuisine
- Moroccan
- Course
- Sauce
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Keywords
- chermoula, chermoula recipe, moroccan chermoula, moroccan marinade for fish, moroccan herb sauce
Nutrition is an estimate per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Values vary with brands, cuts and portion size.
Frequently asked questions
What is chermoula used for?
What is the difference between chermoula and chimichurri?
How long should fish marinate in chermoula?
Can I make chermoula without fresh coriander?
How long does chermoula keep?
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