Last weekend we hosted a vegan cooking course at our house in Milan. We’ve given our house available for this animal association in Italy, called Essere Animali, that they’ve been using to shoot pictures, videos and other events. These people make incredible changes and work so hard to achieve them, but they always need to raise money to keep the wheel turning. Cooking classes are one way to raise a bit of money, but also share knowledge about plant-based eating.We had hosted a course in April for an Easter lunch. This cooking class instead was all about easy, quick and affordable vegan preparations. It was taught by Betti Taglietti, a very nice and funny girl interested in botanics & natural foods, she teaches small kids cooking classes and loves anything ceramics and table decoration. She was great! And the food was so good and easy! this was the menu (we made everything from scratch):

-spelt flatbread with chickpea-mayonnaise mash
-pea pancakes with cucumber-dill tzaziki
-lentil and oats “meatballs”
-salad w/ savory granola and tahini sauce
-chocolate truffles
-coconut custard desert

Below is the recipe for the savory granola:

·INGREDIENTS·
→ 150 gr buckwheat, soaked for 24 hours
→ 100 gr oats
→ 150 gr mix of nuts and seeds
→ 30 gr malt or maple syrup
→ 20 gr extra virgin olive oil
→  fresh or dried herbs chopped: 1 tbsp each of sage, rosemary, thyme (you can use whatever you prefer)
→ 1 tsp salt

Drain the buckwheat. Add it to a bowl together with the oats, nuts & seeds, herbs and salt. Separately mix the oil, syrup and salt, then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well, spread on a baking tray and cook in the oven at 180° for 20 min more or less until all is well toasted and crunchy (mix around once or twice once in the oven).
Store in an airtight container.
It’s great on salads, soups, anything you want to top with something crunchy!