The short answer
You can, but it takes care and clear asking. Bread, couscous, msemen, pastilla and most pastries are wheat-based, and harira soup is thickened with flour. Grilled meat and fish, many tagines and cooked vegetable salads are made without wheat, but no small stall can promise a flour-free kitchen. Ask at every meal.
In more detail
Wheat runs through Moroccan eating. Bread is torn and used as a spoon at almost every meal. Couscous is semolina, made from wheat. Msemen and baghrir, the breakfast breads, are made from flour and semolina, and pastilla is wrapped in thin warqa pastry. Harira, the soup that breaks the fast in Ramadan, is thickened with flour, and many sweets such as chebakia and gazelle horns are pastry.
The better news is the grill and the pot. Brochettes, merguez, mechoui lamb sold by weight with cumin and salt, and most slow-cooked tagines are built on meat, vegetables and spices. Cooked salads of aubergine or peppers come before most meals. The risk is in the details: shared oil, shared surfaces and bread placed on every table.
If you are coeliac, write to your riad before you arrive and ask what the kitchen can do. A short note in French or Arabic explaining what you cannot eat helps at restaurants. At El Karmoussa in the Palmeraie, the menu runs to a quinoa couscous, which is worth asking about.
On our evening food tour, tell us about any allergy before the evening. The guide shapes the route, and we will tell you honestly which stops will not work for you.
Good to know
- Carry a written note of what you cannot eat, in French or Arabic.
- Ask whether a dish was thickened with flour or served on bread.
- Say no to the bread basket rather than leaving it on the table.