How do I eat safely in Morocco with a nut allergy?

I treat nut allergies as the one dietary need in Morocco that needs real vigilance, so let me be straight with you rather than breezy. Almonds in particular are woven through Moroccan cooking. They top the sweet bastilla (pastilla) pie, they are blitzed into amlou (the almond-argan-honey spread served at breakfast), they garnish lamb-with-prune tagines, they fill nearly every pastry, and ground almonds thicken some sauces. Pine nuts and walnuts show up in sweets too. Cross-contamination in pastry kitchens is real. This does not mean you cannot travel here — it means you eat strategically.

The single most useful thing I give nut-allergic clients is a printed allergy translation card in French and Arabic that says clearly 'I have a severe nut allergy. I cannot eat any nuts, almonds, or traces of nuts. This can make me very ill.' French is widely understood in restaurants and Arabic covers everyone else. Hand it over when you sit down, before you order, not after. Most Moroccan kitchens cook to order and the staff are genuinely careful once they understand — the danger is the unspoken assumption, not the food itself.

On the menu, the safe core is naturally nut-free: grilled brochettes, whole grilled fish, plain chicken or kefta (meatball) tagines, harira soup, the fresh chopped salads, omelettes, and couscous if you confirm no nut garnish. The danger zone is anything sweet — skip the pastry plate that arrives with tea, skip bastilla unless it is a confirmed savoury seafood one with no almond topping, skip amlou at breakfast and ask for plain honey, jam or olives instead. Be wary of tagines described as sweet or with dried fruit, as those often carry an almond garnish.

I always tell riads in advance, in writing, so the kitchen plans around it rather than improvising. Carry your own antihistamines and, if prescribed, two adrenaline auto-injectors — pharmacies are good in cities but you should never rely on replacing one mid-trip. In the desert or mountains you may be hours from a clinic, so on those days I keep meals especially plain and brief the camp cook personally. Handled this way, nut-allergic travellers eat safely here; the people who get caught out are the ones who assume a pastry or a 'fancy' tagine is fine.