4 Gluten-Free Days in the Twin Cities

Can we all agree to just not talk about yesterday?

Everyone knows that the Mondays are stinky.  But they are especially vile after a four-day weekend filled with family time, baseball, ridiculously good food, and city living.  Understandably, I never wanted Monday to rear her ugly head.  Yet despite my kicking and screaming, our weekend appeared to be over in a flash and I was back at my desk at 8 a.m. sharp.

Luckily that is done and over with, and now everything can return to “normal.”  That means getting back to our regularly scheduled program (except not really because I’ve been loving the random posting “schedule”).  It’s just another regular ‘ole week back at work and here on the blog.

But instead of talking about stinky Mondays and blogging schedules, let’s recap the major reason why I am sad it’s time to get back to reality: our trip to the Twin Cities {Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN) and the insanely good gluten-free meals I indulged in!  Whenever I travel I do the best I can to eat foods that I know will help me feel good, but sometimes I definitely splurge a bit.

4 Gluten-Free Days in the Twin Cities

Jeremy and I left bright and early on Thursday morning for the four and a half hour drive to the Twin Cities.  We arrived around lunch time, so we immediately had food on the brain.  Stop #1: Foxy Falafel in St. Paul.

I had been craving falafel ever since I added some legumes back into my diet a bit ago, so it had to happen.  I had a difficult time deciding which variety to order, so I went with the stoplight falafel plate that included all three flavors: beet, curry, and traditional.  It was accompanied by cucumbers and tomatoes (I only ate the cucumbers), seasoned cabbage, non-GMO corn chips, and the most amazing organic hummus.  I surprised myself when I decided that the beet falafel was my favorite!  P.S. They had a beef kofta on their menu that was labeled as AIP Paleo-compliant, which I was honestly beyond surprised and amazed about.

After wandering around the city, we met up with my brother-in-law, Tyler, and his fiance, Carmen, for a brewery tour at Surly Brewing Co.  We followed it up with dinner at Red Cow, where I ordered the Manhattan 2.0 burger.  I chose to have it served on arugula greens (they do have a GF bun option) and sans cheese.  It came with a beef patty composed of brisket, chuck, short rib, and sirloin and was topped with the most amazing bacon confit and dried cherry-red wine reduction.

Can we please pause for a moment and talk about how glorious this burger was?  I would definitely list it as one of the top three burgers I have ever eaten.  Their super crispy french fries didn’t hurt, either.  I was beyond impressed with the food, and I loved how accommodating they were to my dietary needs.

On Friday morning, Jeremy and I headed south to check out IKEA and the Mall of America.  We didn’t stay long because, as anticipated, it was entirely too overwhelming.  I am also happy to say that we escaped IKEA without buying more than two wooden spoons.

Call us crazy, but we loved Red Cow SO much the night before that we went there for again for lunch!  In our defense, I was majorly craving a turkey burger and Carmen said it is the best one ever.  And we did go to a different location (there are three in the Twin Cities), so it was basically like eating at a completely different restaurant, right?

I ordered the turkey burger over arugula and subbed hummus in place of the aioli.  I loved that they topped the turkey burger with radish slices and crushed pistachios!  Obviously more french fries had to happen.

Next we checked out a brand new local Hy-Vee (because that’s what we do for fun), and then stopped by Izzy’s Ice Cream for a sweet treat.  It was “Izzy Day” so we got two free Izzy scoops that were so stinkin’ cute on top of our single scoops.

I chose the non-dairy chocolate for my single scoop and picked some fun flavors for my Izzy scoops: blackberry sorbet and lemon basil sorbet.  The basil lime was amazing!  It was very basil-y at first, but the coolness of the lemon gave it the perfect finish.

Friday night involved big plans at Target Field.  One of the main reasons why Jeremy and I chose this particular weekend to visit the Twin Cities was because the Chicago White Sox were in town playing the Twins.  I was born and raised a Sox fan, and I absolutely love any chance that I get to attend a game.  There is just something about watching baseball at the stadium that really equates to Summertime.

For my dinner I chose something a bit off-the-wall for ballpark food.  Hot Indian runs a food truck in the Twin Cities, but they also serve up gluten-free food at the stadium.  I chose their vegan aloo gobi over rice, which contained potatoes, cauliflower, and squash in a curry sauce + a delicious coleslaw/salsa on top.  I normally try to avoid tomatoes, but this was the best I could do at the time.  It was so good and unlike anything I have ever eaten at a ballpark.

And to get things back to the more “traditional” ballpark realm, I finished the evening off with a sad White Sox loss in extra innings and a bag of super salty peanuts.

Saturday morning was a lazy morning with Gilmore Girls episodes and overnight oats (which I made for breakfast every morning during the trip).  Around 11:00 we ventured to Uptown to browse the shops.

Our walk ended at Agra Culture, which I was beyond excited to try since they have an extremely Paleo-friendly menu that even has the Paleo menu items marked!

I ordered the Paleo Plate, which consisted of ridiculously good harissa grilled chicken alongside roasted zucchini + squash and cauliflower cous cous.  The fact that you can now find riced cauliflower at restaurants is completely amazing to me!  Jeremy and I also split an order of their delicious harissa yams.

Jeremy, Tyler, and Carmen (and my old non-GF self) love visiting breweries and distilleries, so we spent the afternoon hopping around to different locations.  I even got to join in on the fun at Dangerous Man Brewing Co. since they had Prohibition Kombucha on tap.  It was the perfect refreshing drink for a warm afternoon.

Isn’t he the cutest?

It was time for a later dinner at around 8:00.  We decided on Brasa Premium Rotisserie since it was one of the restaurants on my “must visit” list.  Holy cow.  It did not disappoint.

After much deliberation, I decided on the slow roasted pork plate with a side of vegetarian black beans and yellow rice.  Everything was 100% spot-on.

But what honestly stole the show for all of us was the deliciousness that is their yuca fries.  They were accompanied by a citrus and garlic mojo sauce, and they made me want to eat yuca every single day for the rest of my life.  I will now be on a continuous hunt at the grocery store for yuca, yuca, and more yuca!

I think it is pretty evident that every single thing we ate was extremely delicious.  But if I had to play favorites, I’d call out Red Cow for the best burgers, Agra Culture for being the most Paleo-friendly, and Brasa for simply being amazing at everything.