Twin Cities compliant options- Brasa and Foxy Falafel

[nauh]

Hi all, 

I just created an account to share this with any other Whole30-ers in St. Paul or Minneapolis, MN. I recently contacted two restaurants to ask about their ingredients. Both of them got back to me within a day- so nice  I will share my questions and their answers below. 

Foxy Falafel in St. Paul:

I sent: 

Do you mind sharing the full ingredient list for a few menu items, including the oil it is cooked in? 

 

The items are as follows: 

-  Red Wine Vinaigrette

- Chicken shawarma 

- Turkey gyro 

- Beef kofta 

- Green tahini 

- Spicy Harissa

- Pickle Plate (do any of your pickles include sugar?) 

- Marinated Beets 

- Baba Ghanoush 

 

I am currently on an elimination diet (Whole30) that prohibits sugar/soy/dairy/grains/beans/corn/alcohol. 

 

 

 

They responded: 

You are good to go on everything except the red wine vinaigrette and pickle plate. We do have Paleo and AIP menu options. Just ask the server when you come in. Also we use olive oil for all the items you have listed. 

 

-------

Brasa (multiple locations): 

 

I sent: Do you mind sharing the full ingredient list for the following menu items, including what oil the food is cooked in? The items I am curious about are as follows: Pulled pork, fried plantains, rotisserie chicken, collard greens with smoked chicken, guacamole, crispy yuca with citrus & garlic mojo, farm-fresh eggs. I am on an elimination diet (Whole30) that does not allow soy/sugar/corn/beans/dairy/gluten/alcohol 

 

They responded: 

 

Thank you for your inquiry and questions about your dietary restrictions. Instead of listing an insane amount of ingredients, I will let you know that everything you listed is okay in exception to the rotisserie chicken which contains soy in our brine.

 

Hope this is helpful- I'm just starting to hit a BIT of a cooking burnout, so it's nice to have some options! I am still going to ensure when I order that nothing is cooked in corn oil at Brasa as I've read that before- but I DID specify no corn and she confirmed the items were compliant... Hmm! Have a great w30, everyone  

[mslind]

Thanks for posting! I followed your lead and emailed Sprout Salad Company in downtown Minneapolis, which is one of my favorite lunch spots. I got an excellent reply! 

 

My email: 

I'm doing Whole30, so I cannot have: 

 

- Sugar or sugar substitutes 

- Dairy 

- Soy

- Legumes

- Sugar or sugar substitutes 

- MSG

- Carrageenan 

- Sulfites 

 

..My favorite dressings are your mustard dressing (in the Sienna), oil-free caesar, and chipotle ranch, but if these are no-gos, I'm interested in the others that could work. I can have olive oil and vinegar. 

 

SPROUT REPLY: 

No worries Meg!

Here is a little cheatsheet to help staying compliant with Whole30 when dinning at Sprout. 

Spoiler alert: your favorite dressing (lemon creole mustard) made the list!

Salads - you can make most of our salads Whole30 compatible with a few substitutions:

• Ensalada Mexicana - remove cheese, sub crispy jalapeño for fresh jalapeño, sub pickled onions (contain sugar) for raw red onions
• Argentine Steakhouse - remove quinoa, sub roasted pepper for fresh bell pepper, sub black beans for potatoes
• Sprout Chicken Caesar - sub cheese and croutons for tomato and cucumber or any other fresh veggies
• Heartland Cobb - remove cheese
• Mighty Aphrodite - remove cheese, orzo and quinoa. chickpeas should be Whole30 compliant
• Riviera Nicoise - Whole30 compliant
• K-Town - might be a tough one to make Whole30 compliant given kimchi is such a big part of the salad and has sugar 
• Chop Chop - Whole30 compliant
• Sienna - remove dried cranberries, almond I believe are Whole30 compliant

Dressing compatible with Whole 30:

• jalapeno honey lime dressing (has honey)
• chimichurri vinaigrette dressing
• lemon Creole mustard vinaigrette dressing 

Hope this helps!

 

Regards,

-dmitry