cook this: 3 moroccan recipes from madaq, including honey-buttered pancakes

by laura brehaut

published jul 10, 2026

10 minute read

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10 minute read

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clockwise from top left: author nargisse benkabbou, honey-buttered pancakes with orange blossom and blueberry sauce, sheet-pan chicken with spiced grapes, chickpeas and thyme, and peach and tomato salad with orange blossom and honey dressing. author photo by anass walidi/food photos by issy croker

our cookbook of the week is madaq by nargisse benkabbou.

jump to the recipes: honey-buttered pancakes with orange blossom and blueberry sauce, peach and tomato salad with orange blossom and honey dressing, and sheet-pan chicken with spiced grapes, chickpeas and thyme.

london-based chef nargisse benkabbou considers herself a flavour chaser. “it’s very cheesy,” she says, laughing, “but i think flavour is important. it’s the core of my work.”

benkabbou’s second cookbook, madaq (appetite by random house, 20026), means “flavour” in moroccan arabic, and is a natural extension of her taste-seeking identity. “my work always revolves around finding the right notes of flavour. when i serve something in a restaurant, or when i cook food at home, i want to make sure that things are going on in people’s taste buds.”

flavour is extremely important in moroccan culture, adds benkabbou — that when you eat even the simplest dishes, whether a tomato salad or roasted eggplant, you feel something. as essential as it is, adding a moroccan flavour is also easily accessible, she says, which is reflected in the everyday recipes in the book.

benkabbou, whose parents emigrated from fez, morocco, in the 1970s, was born and raised in brussels, belgium. growing up, food was a way for her family to connect with their moroccan heritage. she didn’t consider it as a career until she moved to the u.k. more than 15 years ago, where she was blown away by the diversity of london’s food scene.

“i was really impressed and very much inspired by how organic and natural it was to have brazilian food and korean food. it wasn’t something that i was used to.”

after relocating from paris to study public policy, benkabbou ended up pursuing her passion for moroccan food. she had always loved to cook for others, but when she went to cooking school, she found a new sense of belonging. “that’s when i really felt that this is what i want to do. i want to be around food. i want to play with food. i want to serve food to people.”

madaq is nargisse benkabbou’s second cookbook to explore her moroccan heritage. appetite by random house

madaq began as a “small seed” in 2019, a year after the publication of her first book, casablanca (mitchell beazley).

“it’s my ongoing desire to talk about my country and the food of my country,” says benkabbou. “when i had the idea for madaq, i had this light-bulb moment when i thought, ‘i want to focus on the flavour and accessibility.’ i thought at the time, and i still do, that it would resonate with a lot of people.”

on top of its accessibility, benkabbou set out to show how varied moroccan cuisine is. known for tagines and couscous, she says these foods are just a tiny part of it.

there’s a wide range of kemia (small dishes similar to mezze), salads and soups, and vinegar and citrus loom large. moroccan cuisine is fresh and “extremely seasonal,” which is also expressed in their tagines, she says. “we have carrot tagine, or cardoon tagine, artichoke, broad bean (fava bean) tagines. we have a tagine for every single vegetable because we eat the seasons, and it’s something that i tried to show in the book.”

benkabbou was the executive chef at l’mida marrakech in marrakech, morocco, and now hosts pop-ups in london, where she’s working on opening a restaurant. whether events or cookbooks, it all comes down to sharing the love.

“when someone tells me they followed one of my recipes, and it was delicious, and everybody loved it, it makes me really happy. so, there’s something very selfish in sharing recipes and food. and the same way when i serve a dish in the restaurant. the joy of someone smiling or coming to me and telling me, ‘oh, this was so good.’ there’s a lot of satisfaction that comes with that.”

while some of the recipes in the book are benkabbou’s takes on classic dishes, such as an artichoke and pea tagine pasta, others, including ras el hanout mushroom tacos, are decidedly untraditional. “their core flavours, however, remain undeniably moroccan,” she writes.

with madaq, benkabbou hopes “to encourage (canadians) to be less intimidated by moroccan food and embrace it more and be curious and enjoy it.” for readers in the diaspora, she wants to make them feel proud of their heritage and inspired by seeing their cuisine from a different perspective. “because usually, we’re very much focused on the way we’ve been eating at home and how our grandmas cook, which is absolutely normal. but sometimes it’s also good to broaden our horizons and think, ‘ok, why not put a moroccan spice blend on a taco?’ why not?”

honey-buttered pancakes with orange blossom and blueberry sauce

“people who know a little bit about moroccan food know them, but they don’t really know how we really eat them in morocco,” which is with a syrup made of butter and honey, says nargisse benkabbou of baghrir (spongy semolina pancakes). issy croker

baghrir

baghrir:
1 1/3 cups (240 g) semolina flour
1/3 cup (40 g) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
2 cups (480 g) warm water (110f/43c)

blueberry sauce:
(makes about 1 3/4 cups/400 g)
1/3 cup (80 g) water
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
1 1/2 tsp orange blossom water, or more to taste
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 cups (390 g) fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar

for serving:
8 tbsp (113 g) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (176 g) honey
1/3 cup (80 g) crème fraîche
grated lemon zest (optional)

step 1

make the baghrir: combine the semolina flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, yeast and salt in a blender, add the warm water, and blend until the batter is smooth, with no lumps. alternatively, combine the ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a handheld electric mixer until smooth.

step 2

check the consistency of the batter, as the results will depend on the coarseness of your semolina flour. the ideal consistency should be pourable but not watery, thinner than a traditional pancake batter, and slightly thicker than a traditional crêpe batter. if your batter seems too thick, add a little more warm water, 1 tablespoon at a time, as necessary. conversely, if it’s too runny, add a little more semolina flour, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, until it thickens.

step 3

let the batter stand, covered, at room temperature for 25 minutes to allow the yeast to activate; the batter should be light and foamy, with lots of tiny bubbles. blend or whisk again for a few seconds before cooking the pancakes.

step 4

meanwhile, make the blueberry sauce: whisk the water, lemon juice, orange blossom water, and cornstarch together in a medium saucepan until the cornstarch has dissolved. stir in the blueberries and sugar and bring just to a simmer over medium-high heat. reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the blueberries begin to soften and the sauce thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more orange blossom water and/or lemon juice, if desired. remove from the heat and set aside; if desired, reheat the sauce over low heat before serving. (the sauce can be made up to 5 days ahead, cooled, and refrigerated in a sealed container. bring to room temperature or reheat gently before serving.)

step 5

set an 8-inch (20-cm) nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat and wait for it to get properly hot. (that will ensure that the batter sets properly and creates the pancake’s characteristic holes.) pour about 1/3 cup of batter into the center of the hot pan and allow it to spread into a circle; as soon as the batter hits the pan, plenty of small bubbles should appear all over the surface. (the pan doesn’t need to be oiled, unless you’re not using a nonstick pan.) once the pancake starts to set slightly and lose its sheen, within 60 to 90 seconds, it is ready (baghrir are cooked on one side only). adjust the heat as necessary, keeping it between medium and medium-high. transfer the pancake to a plate and repeat with the remaining batter, stacking the pancakes with sheets of parchment paper between them to prevent them from sticking together. (the pancakes can be made ahead and stored in a sealed container or ziplock bag for up to 2 days in the fridge or up to 1 month in the freezer.)

step 6

when ready to serve the pancakes, melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. add the honey and stir to combine, then reduce the heat to low. add the pancakes to the pan two at a time, quickly turning them with a spatula to coat both sides with the syrup; don’t let them soak in the syrup, or they will absorb too much of it. arrange the pancakes on individual plates as you heat them and top each serving with a dollop of crème fraîche and blueberry sauce. if desired, garnish them with a sprinkling of lemon zest.

tip: if only a few bubbles or only large bubbles appear when you add the batter to the pan, the pan may not be hot enough, or the batter may be too thick or hasn’t proofed for long enough. in that case, add 1/4 cup (60 g) warm water to the batter, blend or whisk again, and let proof for an additional 15 minutes, then proceed as directed.

peach and tomato salad with orange blossom and honey dressing

“it’s extremely fresh and light, and i love fruit in my salad,” nargisse benkabbou says of this peach and tomato salad with orange blossom and honey dressing. issy croker

serves: 4

1 1/2 cups (225 g) halved cherry tomatoes or roma tomatoes cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) chunks
half a small red onion (60 g), thinly sliced
2 cups (50 g) arugula
1/2 cup (9 g) cilantro leaves and tender stems, roughly torn
1/2 cup (9 g) flat-leaf parsley leaves and tender stems, roughly torn
2 peaches, halved, pitted and sliced into 1/2-inch-thick (1.2-cm) wedges
fine sea salt and black pepper
3 tbsp (22 g) pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup (75 g) crumbled feta
3/4 cup (120 g) orange blossom and honey dressing (recipe follows)