Lunch Date Part II

Saturday morning I continued on the workout train and went to a 9am cardio kickboxing class at the gym. 

We were heading out to Schaumburg afterwards to do some furniture shopping (which was successful, more on that later!) and decided to have lunch at Chowpatti in Arlington Heights. 

Chowpatti is another restaurant I've been wanting to try for ages.  Their cuisine is entirely vegetarian and the menu is huge.  They offer American, Mexican, Middle Eastern and Italian fare along with Indian specialties. 

Both of us decided to go the Indian route, and I asked our server for some gluten-free options.

I had the Sev Usal Ragda.  Ragda is a yellow pea soup that is sweet and savory.  The Sev Usal is topped with Sev which are crispy chickpea noddles (slighlty smaller than Lo Mein noddles), onions cilantro and a sweet date chutney.  The dish was delicious and the chutney gave a lot of sweet that blended beautifully with the spices in the dish and the slight amount of heat.

Jason had the Ragda Samosa, which is identical to mine with a samosa chopped up underneath the peas.  I didn't try it but he loved it.

We split a Masala Papad which is a very, very thin large wafer made with roasted lentils.

In my quest for a more vegetarian and gluten-free diet I have a feeling I am going to explore more Indian cuisine.  I would go back to Chowpatti any day, and only wish it were closer!  If you're in the area you should definitely check it out.