Moroccan CooksRecipes from Morocco
Moroccan Tagines

Kefta Mkaouara — Moroccan Meatball Tagine with Eggs

By The Moroccan Cooks KitchenUpdated

Spiced beef meatballs poached in a thick tomato and paprika sauce, with eggs cracked in at the end and left to set. Eaten straight from the pot with bread.

Moroccan kefta mkaouara — beef meatballs in red tomato sauce with eggs set on top, in a clay tagine
Photo: Pexels
Prep
20 min
Cook
35 min
Total
55 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy

Kefta mkaouara is the Moroccan answer to a weeknight. Small spiced meatballs go into a tomato sauce that has been cooked down hard with garlic, paprika and cumin, and in the last five minutes eggs are cracked over the top and left to set in the heat. Nothing is served on a plate — the tagine goes to the table and everyone eats out of it with bread.

The two things that separate a good one from a dull one are both about patience. The sauce has to reduce far enough that the oil separates and comes back to the surface, which takes longer than you think. And the meatballs are poached in that sauce rather than browned first, which keeps them soft instead of bouncy.

It is cheap, it takes under an hour, and it is one of the few Moroccan dishes that is arguably better in a frying pan than in a clay tagine, because a wide base reduces the sauce faster.

Ingredients

Servings

Makes 4 servings

For the meatballs

For the sauce

To finish

Instructions

  1. Mix the kefta

    Put the mince in a bowl with the grated onion, herbs, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, pepper and salt. Work it with your hands for a full minute — longer than feels necessary — until the mixture tightens and holds together. This is what stops the meatballs breaking up in the sauce.

  2. Roll and chill

    Roll into small balls about the size of a walnut, around 24 of them. Small matters: they cook through in the time the sauce needs, and more of each one touches the sauce. Put them in the fridge while you make the sauce.

  3. Start the sauce

    Heat the olive oil in a wide, shallow pan or a tagine base over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 7 minutes until soft, then the garlic for one more minute.

  4. Cook the tomato down

    Add the grated tomato, tomato purée, paprika, cumin and chilli if using. Turn the heat up and let it bubble, stirring now and then, for 15 to 20 minutes. It is ready when the sauce has darkened from bright red to brick, thickened enough to leave a trail behind the spoon, and you can see oil separating at the edges. Do not rush this — it is the whole flavour of the dish.

  5. Poach the meatballs

    Lower the heat. Sit the meatballs into the sauce in a single layer, spooning a little over each one. Cover and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, turning them once halfway. They should never be browned first; poaching keeps them tender. Add a splash of water if the sauce starts to catch.

  6. Season, then add the eggs

    Taste the sauce and add salt now. Make four small gaps between the meatballs and crack an egg into each. Cover again and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft. Take it off the heat the moment the whites turn opaque — they carry on cooking in the pan.

  7. Serve in the pan

    Scatter the herbs over and take the whole pan to the table. Everyone eats from it with bread, breaking the yolks into the sauce as they go.

Cook’s notes

  • Squeeze the grated onion dry before it goes into the meat. Wet onion makes the mixture loose and the meatballs fall apart.
  • A wide shallow pan beats a deep one. More surface means the sauce reduces properly in twenty minutes instead of forty.
  • Leave the eggs out and you have kefta mkaouara that reheats perfectly and freezes. With the eggs in, eat it the same day — reheated set eggs are rubbery.
  • Some households stir in a knob of butter or a spoon of smen at the end. It rounds the acidity of the tomato.
  • Tinned tomatoes work but taste flatter. If using them, add an extra half teaspoon of paprika and cook five minutes longer.

Recipe information

Prep time
20 min
Cook time
35 min
Total time
55 min
Servings
4
Calories
420 kcal per serving
Cuisine
Moroccan
Course
Main Dish
Difficulty
Easy
Keywords
kefta mkaouara, moroccan meatball tagine, moroccan meatballs with eggs, kefta tagine recipe

Nutrition is an estimate per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Values vary with brands, cuts and portion size.

keftameatballstagineeggsquickweeknight

Frequently asked questions

What does mkaouara mean?
It comes from the word for a ball or a round shape, and describes the small rolled meatballs the dish is built from. Kefta is the spiced minced meat itself. Together the name simply means the little meatball dish — which is how it is asked for at home.
Should I brown the meatballs first?
No. Browning gives a firmer, bouncier meatball and Moroccan cooks do not do it here. Poaching them in the sauce keeps them soft and lets them take on the tomato. It also means one pan and one step fewer.
Can I make it without eggs?
Yes, and it is still a complete dish — many households serve it plain. The eggs are common but not compulsory, and leaving them out makes the tagine keep for three days in the fridge and freeze well.
Do I need a clay tagine for this?
No, and a wide frying pan is arguably better. A tagine's cone traps steam, which is what you want for a slow meat tagine but works against you here — this sauce needs to reduce. If you do use one, leave the lid off for the tomato stage.

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