Tunisian Spices: Harissa, Tabil, Caraway

Tunisian cooking is built on chile, and the chile arrives mostly as harissa, a paste of sun-dried peppers pounded with salt, garlic and coriander that UNESCO added to its intangible heritage list in 2022.¹ Around it sit a handful of seed spices (coriander, caraway and cumin), the blend tabil, and, in some dishes, the more elaborate ras el hanout and the old pepper-like spices cubeb and grains of paradise.

At a glance

Seasoning	What it is	What it brings	Typical use
Harissa	Sun-dried chiles crushed with salt, garlic and coriander¹	Heat, garlic	Kept as a household staple¹; merguez, shakshuka²
Tabil	Coriander, caraway, garlic and dried chile³	Warm, citrusy, mildly hot	Stews; sprinkled on grilled meat³
Caraway	Dried seed	Sharp, anise-like	Harissa recipes⁴
Coriander seed	Dried seed	Citrusy, warm	Harissa,¹ tabil³
Cumin	Dried seed	Earthy	Savory dishes
Ras el hanout	Multi-spice blend⁵	Varies by maker	Varies
Cubeb, grains of paradise	Peppery seeds and berries	Pungent, bitter or citrusy	Blends⁶⁷

Harissa

UNESCO’s inscription, made in Tunisia’s name in 2022, describes harissa as chilies dried in the sun and then crushed with salt, garlic and coriander, using a pestle and mortar or a hand meat mincer, and stored in glass or pottery jars.¹ It calls the paste an integral part of domestic provisions and notes that it is usually prepared by women in a festive family setting.¹

Recipes vary. Katzer notes that several Tunisian harissa recipes call for caraway,⁴ and commercial dry blends add more:

Source	Ingredients
UNESCO (traditional paste)¹	Sun-dried chile, salt, garlic, coriander
Katzer (Tunisian recipes)⁴	Several call for caraway
The Spice House (dry blend, US)²	Tomato powder, chiles, salt, garlic, cumin, paprika, pepper, coriander, caraway, fennel, lemon juice powder

The Spice House suggests 3 tablespoons of its blend per pound of ground meat for merguez, and lists shakshuka among its uses.² See harissa powder, harissa paste vs. powder and harissa substitutes.

Tabil

Tabil is a Tunisian blend; Dave DeWitt writes that the word means coriander but usually refers to a mix, which Tunisians use in stews and sprinkle over grilled meats.³ His recipe uses coriander seed, caraway seed, garlic and a dried crushed chile.³ It reads as harissa’s dry cousin: the same seeds and garlic, with less chile. That comparison is ours.

Caraway

Katzer describes caraway as of some importance in North African cooking, mostly in Tunisia.⁴ See caraway seeds, cooking with caraway seeds and caraway vs. cumin.

Coriander seed

Katzer lists coriander fruits as a common spice across Europe, Northern Africa and West, Central and South Asia.⁸ In Tunisia it is one of the three seasonings in UNESCO’s description of harissa¹ and the namesake of tabil.³ See coriander, cooking with coriander and coriander vs. cumin.

Cumin

Britannica describes cumin as especially popular in North African cooking, as well as in Asian and Latin American cuisines.⁹ It is not part of UNESCO’s description of traditional harissa,¹ though some commercial harissa blends include it.² See cumin and cumin uses.

Ras el hanout

The Oxford Companion to Food says ras el hanout, a name meaning something like “top of the shop,” is found in varying forms in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.⁵ Its standard ingredients, per the Companion, are cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, cardamom and nutmeg, with many more in elaborate versions.⁵ It is better known as a Moroccan blend; see ras el hanout and Moroccan spices.

Cubeb and grains of paradise

Katzer writes that cubeb pepper is now used mostly in North Africa, notably Tunisia and Morocco,⁶ and that the Tunisian blend gâlat dagga contains grains of paradise.⁷ See cubeb pepper and grains of paradise.

Mint

Katzer calls an infusion of green mint the “national beverage” of Morocco and Tunisia.¹⁰ See Moroccan mint and spearmint.

Also in the pantry

Flat-leaf parsley and olive oil turn up in most savory Tunisian dishes; that is common practice. See parsley.

Harissa, knowledge, skills and culinary and social practices, UNESCO Representative List, 2022. ich.unesco.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹
Harissa Seasoning product page, The Spice House. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Dave DeWitt, “Tabil”, Fiery Foods Central, 2015. fieryfoodscentral.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Gernot Katzer, Caraway (Carum carvi), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Alan Davidson, “Ras-el-hanout”, The Oxford Companion to Food, 2014. app.ckbk.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³
Gernot Katzer, Cubeb Pepper (Piper cubeba), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Gernot Katzer, Grains of Paradise (Aframomum melegueta), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Gernot Katzer, Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩
“Cumin”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩
Gernot Katzer, Mint (Mentha), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩

Tunisian Spices: Harissa, Tabil, Caraway, Coriander and Ras el Hanout