We’d been reading up on the benefits of amla powder and I was wanting to get some to add into our diet. On the North side of Chicago, there are several blocks known as Little India that I thought would be a good place to seek out this ingredient, since it is an Indian ingredient.
Just before we got there, I suggested that we look and see if there was anything that piqued our interest for lunch so that we weren’t enticed by every single thing in the store and could attempt to make some solid decisions.
Within moments, Sweetie pulled up a listing for this place, Arya Bhavan which boasts raw and vegan items on their menu. We quickly agreed that we needed to try that place, since there are so few places that actually make raw vegan food, and they were also touting that they didn’t use oil, or they minimized the use of it. Bring it on!
We started our meal with their samosas, because who goes to an Indian restaurant and doesn’t get samosas? Okay, well, I don’t. They were great! They were made with a whole wheat dough and baked rather than fried and they were outstanding. We also had an order of the dalvada, a mashed lentil patty spiced with onion, garlic, ginger and green chili. These were great also. Plus, I’ve almost never been a fan of Indian dipping sauces, I still don’t love the tamarind, personally, but I liked theirs pretty well and their mint dipping sauce was amazing. I was eating it on everything else I had.
After a course of hot appetizers, we had a raw course, where we tried the Indian Pizza, an organic, vegan, gluten-free preparation with a raw crust of sunflower seeds, cauliflower and nuts, topped with homemade tomato sauce, jalapeño and mixed vegetables. I liked the freshness of this dish, but I was much more satisfied with the veggies on top and found the crust to be a little tough and dry. We also had their Indian “Taco,” a crunchy cabbage leaf stuffed with a mix of bell peppers, onions, beets, cucumbers, carrots Indian spices and other vegetables. Served with vegan sour cream and a thin guacamole-like sauce. While this was nothing like a taco, or dhosa, or anything else wrapped up that I’ve ever had, it was a crunchy, tasty dish. It just needs another name, I think.
We finished our meal with the Dal Makani, a dish of black lentils, pan cooked with tomato, ginger and garlic, which was had with some rice and their Lemon Rice, which was really good and fragrant.
Overall, we really enjoyed our meal here and definitely will want to come back to try more dishes.
VegScore: 100% – fully vegan menu. 2508 W Devon Ave , Chicago, IL 60659