Chermoula Recipe: Moroccan Herb Sauce (2 Ways)

Want to jazz up dinner? This easy chermoula sauce recipe has a blend of smoky, punchy herbal flavors to elevate any type of meat, seafood or vegetables. Traditional chermoula spices like cumin and coriander, fresh parsley and cilantro combine with a handful of other ingredients to make a chermoula sauce that will dance in your mouth.

What is Chermoula Sauce?

Chermoula (pronounced chur-MOO-lah) is a bold, herby condiment from North Africa — popular in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Think of it as the North African answer to chimichurri or salsa verde: a fresh herb sauce built on parsley and cilantro, deepened with warm spices like cumin and coriander, and brightened with lemon juice.

Each region puts its own spin on it, but the result is always the same — smoky, punchy, and completely addictive.

Chermoula Recipe

There are two ways to make this recipe: the easy way OR the elbow grease method. The easy way takes advantage of some cool kitchen gadgets and the elbow grease method is done in a mortar and pestle with your own muscle and brute force. If you’re looking for a workout,the elbow grease method is a good one.

For the easy way, you’ll need a spice grinder or coffee grinder that’s been well cleaned of any coffee residue.  I actually have two coffee grinders (one just for coffee and the other exclusively for grinding spices) and if you like to play with spices, I’d recommend having one grinder dedicated to that purpose.

Chermoula starts with spice and while you can certainly use jarred spices that are already ground, I prefer toasting whole cumin seed and coriander to bring even more depth of flavor and release their smoky, fragrant aromas.  Toast whole spices in a skillet for just a few minutes and then choose the method you’ll use to make your chermoula sauce. If you’re going with the easy method, give the toasted spices a whiz in the grinder until they yield a fine powder, otherwise use your mortar and pestle to mash the spices to oblivion. This chermoula spice blend is responsible for the smoky nuance and depth of flavor in the chermoula sauce. Trust me, this ain’t no pesto.

Wash and dry the flat leaf parsley and cilantro in a salad spinner, and then let air dry until nearly all of the moisture is gone. Chop it finely in the food processor, scraping down the sides as needed, then add the spices, garlic, pepper and salt to the herbs and pulse to combine.

While the food processor is running, drizzle in the olive oil until it forms a thick paste.  Add the lemon juice and pulse a few more times until it’s well combined.  That’s it.  This whole process takes about 10 minutes, so this is an easy way to jazz up any plain protein or vegetable.

The elbow grease method :

The muscle-y version starts with a good knife and a cutting board and ends in a mortar and pestle. Start with the toasted spices – crush, grind and generally pulverize them.

Chop the fresh herbs and set aside. Then chop the garlic and pepper.  In the mortar and pestle, combine the chopped garlic, pepper and kosher salt. Work them together with the pestle, until a thick paste forms.

Add a handful of the chopped parsley and cilantro to the garlic mixture. Mashing, crushing and generally breaking down the herbs into the garlic until they’re smooth. Continue to add the fresh herbs to the garlic mixture until they’re ground to a paste. Next comes the spices, mix them well into the herb blend, then drizzle the olive oil while stirring constantly until you have a thick sauce.  Stir in the lemon juice and serve.  This method takes about 15-20 minutes of mixing, crushing and pounding, but your arm is gonna look fabulous when you’re done.

To store the chermoula, place it in an airtight container and flatten the top with the back of a spoon.  Drizzle a layer of olive oil over the top of the sauce to prevent it from losing it’s vivid color. You can refrigerate the paste for up to 3-4 days. Try it with this Grilled New York Strip Steak recipe.

More herb sauces to try:

• Pistachio Pesto
• Vibrant Italian Salsa Verde
• Spinach Basil Pesto with Almonds
• Pesto with Pine Nuts

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