Raw Food Diet - Day 4 - A Night at the Ecopolitan

For a Midwest city, Minneapolis has its fare share of good restaurants (making it a cool place in yet another way ;-)  What we did not expect is a place like the Ecopolitan right on Lyndale two blocks passed The Wedge.  This is a restaurant dedicated to organic, vegan, gluten free and raw food.  That applies to every item on their menu.

I have to say I had low expectations.  Sharon and I went there out of necessity.  We were on day four of a Raw Food Diet shenanigan and decided to go there as soon as we heard about the place.  We are used to going out to dinner with some regularity and this raw for diet was making it rather difficult.

For appetizers we started with an easy guacamole and salsa.  Perhaps not much of a stretch, since this is a dish that is never cooked.  The challenge was perhaps on the crackers.  Made in their kitchen, these tostadas are made out of sunflower seeds and a variety of other seeds.  They had the perfect crunch and did not add too much flavor to the guacamole (in my opinion, an issue with the raw flax seed crackers, or at least the ones sold at Whole Foods.)

We ordered a second appetizer that had more of a challenge: humus.  Traditional humus is made with cooked chickpeas that are usually cooked.  Anyway, this particular humus was made with zucchini and garlic (we are leading that zucchini is a staple in raw food, (whuddathonk?) This was DELICIOUS.  In some ways better than the original, with a more vibrant flavor.  This raised the expectations considerably for the entrees.

The Lentil Faux Taco Meat Salad was made with cashew sour cream.  Served with mixed greens, this salad was flavorful and very fresh.  I might have added chopped black olives for an extra flavor kick that would have been well suited to the dish, but overall it was a very successful dish.  So much so, that we made our way to The Wedge afterwards trying to find some of the lentil faux taco meat.  BTW, we couldn't.

Last, we ordered a zucchini Pesto Pasta over spinach.  There is really no pasta on this dish, but rather the zucchinis are cut in long strips like spaghetti.  The pesto was terrific and very creamy (I have a feeling it was not made with pine nuts, but can't say for sure.)  We shared and devoured all the courses and ended up so full that could not go for dessert, although there was a coconut cream pie (vegan, organic, raw and gluten free) that looked pretty good.

The place is most definitely worth a visit (I know we will be there again even after our Raw Food Diet is a funny memory.)  If you go there, know that they have a small parking lot in the back that you access through the alley.