What is the national dish of Tunisia?

The national dish of Tunisia is couscous, called kosksi locally: fine-grained durum-wheat semolina steamed over a stew of lamb, chicken or fish with vegetables and spices. No law makes it official, but it is the dish cited everywhere and the one served at ceremonies. Brik, a fried pastry with a runny egg inside, is often named alongside it.

Updated 2026-10-123 min read

What is Tunisian couscous?

Kosksi is made from small granules of steamed and dried durum wheat. Tunisians typically use a fine grain. It is cooked in a two-level steamer, the kiskas in Arabic or couscoussier in French: meat, vegetables and spices simmer in the lower pot while the semolina sits in the upper basket, sometimes layered with bay leaves, and cooks in the rising steam. It has to be stirred with a fork during cooking so it does not form lumps.

The most common meats are lamb (kosksi bil ghalmi) and chicken (kosksi bil djaj), with vegetables such as potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and squash. Regional versions use hare, quail or qadid, salted and dried mutton. Couscous is a dish for every event: it is served in an enormous shared bowl at gatherings from weddings to funerals.

On the coast, fish takes the place of meat: grouper, red snapper or sea bass. Fish couscous is a speciality of Sfax, Gabès, Djerba and the Kerkennah islands. It uses a very fine semolina, worked just before cooking, no chickpeas and few vegetables, but plenty of garlic, with cumin, onion and tomato.

Is couscous officially Tunisia's national dish?

There is no law or decree. Couscous is Tunisia's national dish by consensus: encyclopedias and food writers name it first, and the French-language reference on Tunisian cuisine describes it as the traditional dish above all, especially for ceremonies, even though pasta is what Tunisians eat most often day to day.

In December 2020 Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania jointly obtained a UNESCO inscription for the know-how and practices of couscous on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. That recognises a shared heritage, not a national dish, which is why the same couscous heads the list in Algeria.

Regional couscous in Tunisia

The base never changes, but the garnish and method follow the region:

• Couscous djerbien, from the island of Djerba, where meat or fish and vegetables are seasoned and steamed together with the grain.
• Barkoukech, from the Jérid region in the south.
• Borzgane, a festive couscous from the north-west that mixes dried fruit and meat, made to welcome spring.
• Masfouf, sweet in the north, where it is served as a dessert, but savoury on Djerba, cooked with dried meat preserved in olive oil.
• Malthouth, couscous made with barley instead of wheat.

Why brik is named too

Many lists of national dishes give Tunisia two answers: couscous and brik. NPR's Morning Edition called brik practically a Tunisian national food, and a popular dish to break the daily fast during Ramadan.

A brik is a sheet of very thin pastry, filled, folded into a triangle or half-moon and fried. The classic filling is an egg, tuna, parsley, sliced onion and mashed boiled potato; our recipe uses tuna, capers, parsley and a whole egg cracked on top. The yolk must still be soft after frying. Other versions swap the tuna for meat, crumbled fish, prawns or cheese. NPR traces brik to the family of stuffed pastries, börek and its relatives, eaten across the former Ottoman Empire.

Other dishes to know from Tunisia

Lablabi is the country's most popular soup, sold on the street even late at night: a thin garlic and cumin chickpea broth ladled hot over torn stale bread. The seasoning goes into the bowl, not the pot: harissa, lemon, olive oil, a poached egg and often tuna.

Ojja is a pan of tomato, peppers, harissa and ground caraway in which merguez simmer for 25 minutes before eggs are cooked on top. It is close to shakshuka, but unlike shakshuka it is made without onion and flavoured only with ground caraway, never coriander. Tunisians also cook it with meatballs, prawns or brains instead of merguez.

Soups matter in Tunisia, especially in winter and during Ramadan: one reference book lists more than thirty-six. The most common is chorba, made with meat, chicken or fish and usually tiny pasta called bird's tongues, flavoured with parsley and celery and finished with lemon juice. Day to day, though, pasta with tomato sauce is what Tunisians eat most, while couscous remains the traditional dish for celebrations.

All three recipes are on our page about the food of Tunisia, and the neighbouring kitchens are in our guide to North African food.

The recipes

• Brik🇹🇳 Tunisia · 25 minutes
• Lablabi🇹🇳 Tunisia · 13 hours and 30 minutes
• Ojja🇹🇳 Tunisia · 55 minutes

Questions people ask

Keep reading

• Traditional food of Tunisia: 13 dishes to know
• What is the national dish of Algeria?
• What is the national dish of Egypt?
• What is the national dish of Libya?
• What is the national dish of Morocco?
• What is the national dish of Sudan?

Sources

1. Tunisian cuisine — Wikipedia
2. Cuisine tunisienne — Wikipédia
3. Knowledge, know-how and practices pertaining to the production and consumption of couscous — UNESCO
4. The Storied History Of A Tunisian Tuna Pastry Called Bric — NPR
5. Lablabi — Wikipedia
6. National dish — Wikipedia

Download

← All articles