Vegan MoFo Post #3!
Minneapolis was pretty rad and often so overlooked! Maybe I wouldn’t survive the winter there, but I really felt like I needed tons more time to explore this city! We managed to pack a lot into our few days. Eating, browsing the co-op, bike-riding, beer drinkin’, etc. but there was so much more to do!
Don’t worry, I’ll get to the food soon. Our second day, we rented bikes and biked around the lake in Lyndale Park, then got some craft beers and sat by the water. Summer win! Oh yeah, and there was this cute little tram just outside of the park.
My friend Leigh took us to this awesome place called the French Meadow Cafe and Bakery. They weren’t all vegan, but had TONS of clearly labeled awesome vegan options and loads of vegan desserts as well. I went for the Organic Tempeh Cutlet which was organic brown rice with coconut scented red beans, sautéed seasonal greens and firecracker slaw in a blood orange vinaigrette.
I had been lacking vegetables after too much time in the car so I also got a side of steamed greens even if there were already some in my meal.
I did not really have room for dessert, but once I saw the menu I had to do it. I went with the Caramel and Chocolate Cookie which was house-made caramel between two delicate and cripsy cookies topped with chocolate ganache and served with vegan frozen custard. Yessss.
In case you’re not hungry enough, the meal the next day was also pretty awesome. We did a late 1pm brunch at The Bad Waitress Cafe and Diner. I got the Heavy Pedal with tofu and two ingredients of my choice (I went with spinach and avocado), it came with toast and delicious hash browns and then we got a pot of coffee for $4. It was pretty much everything brunch should be and the portions weren’t too huge or too small, so I still felt functional after leaving and didn’t have to put aside time for a food coma. Plus, look at that avocado! 
We got some chips and guac with salsa for an appetizer because it’s my goal to put as much Mexican food and avocado in my body as humanly possible while I’m in the States.
As a bonus, here is a picture of our AirBnB host’s cat in Minneapolis, Max the gregarious. One of my favorite things on this trip has been meeting our Couchsurfing, AirBnB hosts and our friends’ pets!
Where to buy groceries
This post is not complete unless I mention The Wedge Co-op. Go here and buy all the groceries. They even had 3-4 types of aged hard cashew cheeses. We were about to head to Yellowstone and stocked up on ALL our camping food ingredients here.
There you have it, my way too short post about Minneapolis! Next stop…Wyoming and South Dakota. That’s where it starts to get real, my friends.
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Whoa, that chocolate caramel cookie looks AMAZING, I’m really jealous! Minneapolis is a pretty cool city, I remember being surprised by it when I was there, too. I don’t remember much of what I ate though – your food looks much better than what I had there. I just remember going to a place called Pizza Luce who did some nice homemade vegan cheese, which was good.
Homemade vegan cheese sounds pretty awesome though!
I know that feeling when you haven’t eaten enough veggies and you just crave a big side of greens! I feel healthy just looking at it. Nice to see some good looking vegan options in Minneapolis!
Delighted to see some Minneapolis love! Despite having lived in the area forever, I have not yet visited Bad Waitress or French Meadows. Better put them on my list to check out. Next time around you have to check out Galactic Pizza and The Hard Times. 🙂
The tempeh cutlet looks amazing, I love tempeh when it’s breaded and fried like that. I also would have gone for that cookie no matter how full I was – yum!!