Vegetable Curry with Quinoa

Hummus and veggies

For my gluten free bachelorette party myself, my best friend Fiona, my mum and three of my favourite American ladies spent the evening eating delicious food at Red Avocado in Iowa City followed by a little gambling at the nearby Riverside Casino. We had a fantastic night!

Red Avocado is probably my favourite restaurant in Iowa and I praised it in my post during our last trip to the mid west. There wasn’t anywhere better that I could think of to share a girly night with a bunch of lovely ladies. What made it even better was that one of my friends is a fellow gluten free-er so it was great to able to introduce her to a new and safe place to eat! She loved it! We all did

For the table we ordered hummus with vegetables for dipping and a huge bowl of seasoned cashews. Fresh and delicious! There are a good number of gluten free options on the menu (although you have to ask as they are not labelled as so) which made it difficult to choose but I decided I was in the mood for something with a little spice so I went for the Vegetable Curry with quinoa and tempeh. A huge portion and absolutely fantastic! Four of us were drinking so we ordered a bottle of Argentine torrentes which was sooo tasty and the perfect compliment to our amazing dinner!

The second half of our gluten free evening was spend at the casino where we gambled about $10 between the 6 of us. The excitement really began when Darcie won $23 playing slots and then Fiona with her life changing $4.20! What a great night.

Fiona and her winnings

Meagan and I losing our dollars

Happy Darcie

The Red Avocado

I’d been meaning to try The Red Avocado for a while but we always seemed to be in the vicinity between the hours of 2pm and 5pm, when it’s not open. It’s a vegan restaurant in Iowa city and I’d heard that they do quite a few gluten free dishes too. I haven’t found too many gluten friendly restaurants in Iowa that also have personality so I was very excited to try this locally inspired, organic place.

I emailed the restaurant to find out about their gluten free options. They didn’t provide information on which of their dishes were gluten free as their menu is bi-monthly and focuses on local and seasonal ingredients. They did say however that a number of things are gluten free and others can be adapted to be. They also said to mention that I am coeliac when I call to reserve a table.

Vegetable Peanut Satay

Quinoa Fiesta

The red Avocado’s menu is awesome. There serve a wonderful variety of delicious sounding dishes, filled with interesting vegetables, grains and spices. It was extremely difficult to decide on what to choose as I wanted to try everything. After more pondering I decided on the Vegetable Peanut Satay, which came with tempeh and quinoa. Fantastic! My boyfriend ordered the daily special (also gf) of quinoa salad with corn chips and black bean hummus with a side of corn and coconut soup. Again, scrumptious!

It’s not the cheapest of restaurants but the organic, locally produced, fresh deliciousness of each of their dishes makes it worth the price. I can’t wait to return and try something else!

The menu

Corn and Coconut soup