Fes Vegetarian Cooking Class - Refined Meat-Free Fassi Cuisine

Fes gave Morocco its most elaborate cuisine, and much of that refinement is in the vegetables - the cooked salads, the layered couscous, the slow vegetable dishes that a Fassi table sets alongside its famous tagines. This vegetarian class, in a riad kitchen in the medieval medina, shows how well plant-based cooks eat in the culinary capital, treating meat-free food as a feast rather than an afterthought.

You cook a proper seven-vegetable couscous, steamed repeatedly over its broth the traditional way; a vegetable tagine layered with squash, carrots, courgette and chickpeas; and a spread of the Fassi cooked salads - smoky zaalouk, taktouka, carrot and cumin, beetroot - that show off the city's finesse. You learn the spice work that gives Fassi food its depth, the sweet-savoury balance the city is known for, and make fresh khobz bread to go with it all.

Most classes begin with a guided walk into a medina market to shop for produce, since Fes el Bali is a maze best entered with a guide. The host shows how easily the dishes go vegan and how to reproduce them at home. You finish by eating a full, refined plant-based Fassi meal together, and leave with a repertoire that proves Moroccan vegetarian cooking is among the world's most rewarding. Vegan and allergy needs are easily met with notice.