Tagine tamr — date tagine — is a sweet-savory Moroccan dish most closely associated with the southern oases of the Tafilalet and Draa valleys, where date palms are the defining crop and dates are eaten fresh, dried, and cooked. In the tagine, meat is slow-cooked with halved dried dates, almonds, honey and cinnamon, producing a sauce that is the sweetest and richest of all the sweet-savory tagines. Dates, unlike prunes or raisins, hold their shape during cooking and concentrate in flavor, becoming almost candied. The dish is served at celebrations and for honored guests in the south, and it is the most dessert-like of the main-course tagines.
The meat is tender and the sauce is thick, dark and very sweet, with the dates softened but still holding their shape and the almonds crunchy. Cinnamon and honey intensify the date sweetness into something almost syrupy.
Dates behave differently from other dried fruits in a tagine because they are already very high in sugar and low in moisture. Unlike raisins, which plump up by absorbing broth, dates barely change: their dense, fibrous flesh holds its shape and their sugar concentrates further during cooking, so the sauce around them becomes syrupy from the date sugars alone. Honey is added late, complementing rather than competing with the date sweetness. The almonds, toasted separately, provide the one non-sweet element in the dish, their buttery crunch cutting the intensity.
Variations
Chicken replaces lamb in a lighter version. Some add a pinch of orange-blossom water. Sesame seeds are a common garnish.
On the Palate
Where Tagine Tamr sits in the Moroccan flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
6 steps · 25 min
- 18 min
Brown 1 kg lamb chunks in 3 tbsp olive oil; add 2 sliced onions, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp saffron, salt; cook 5 min.
Watch outBrown the lamb hard before adding liquid — a deep sear is what builds the savory base under the sweet dates.
- 215 min
Add water to cover; simmer covered 45 min.
- 35 min
Pit and halve 200 g dried dates; soak 10 min; drain.
- 45 min
Add dates, 100 g toasted almonds, 2 tbsp honey to the tagine.
- 55 min
Simmer uncovered 15 min until the sauce is thick and syrupy.
Watch outSimmer uncovered until the sauce turns thick and syrupy — it thickens from the dates' own concentrated sugar, so reduce it down rather than adding starch.
- 63 min
Scatter sesame seeds; serve with couscous.
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