The Key To Skinny

If you want to be skinny, and stay skinny, there’s one thing you need to do: Love Your Vegetables. I mean, really LOVE them. You have to find a way to cook them, without fancy high-fat creams and sauces, that causes you to crave them as much as you would crave a candy bar. Heck, you don’t even have to cook them. I still carry a bag of raw radishes in my car whenever I run errands, because I LOVE THAT CRUNCH!!

But, roasting them, that’s the ultimate, cheesecake, of all cheesecakes in the vegetable world. Trust me on this. For this one, I’ll show you how I roast cabbage — stop groaning — it’s DELICIOUS!!! When you roast the cabbage, it gets rid of all of that smelly stuff, and transforms the cabbage into some kind of caramel — because the sugars do come out. This taste so good, that I’m wondering of maybe roasting cabbage adds calories, and I just don’t know it, yet.

So, this is similar to the way I make Krispy Kale, but takes a bit longer. I do this one in the oven, because the heads of cabbage are thicker, and needs “surround heat.”

First, preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Chop up your head of cabbage into wedges… and go ahead and nibble on those stray pieces… get used to that cold, crunch freshness… it’s delicious!

The cabbage is already a little bit roasted — I pulled it out of the oven to grab a picture. (I was hungry).

Then, rub a large pan with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Go light on the olive oil — you want enough to keep the cabbage from sticking — maybe a tablespoon or two — or less.

Next, dredge your cabbage, on both sides, in the olive oil and spread the oil around the pan. If you are lucky enough to have an olive oil “sprayer” that you trust, just use that. The ones I find usually end up getting moldy.

Then, lay the wedges nicely along the pan — then sprinkle with a few more grinds of sea salt.

Pop the whole tray into the oven, and roast for 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes and flip at the halfway point.

Here they are, halfway roasted.

They look done… but another 10 minutes, and I got this:

Now, what to do with it? Does it look scary to you? Think of it as a roast… all caramelized and yummy with onions on top.

Next, grab yourself a big cereal bowl, and plop one of those caramelized wedges inside. Then, drizzle it a bit with balsamic vinegar — if you like that sort of thing — and a few more grinds of salt.

Next, pick out your favorite cheese (you need a protein to make this a full-filling meal!) — a hard cheese is nice — I have been using Manchego, and it has been delicious.

Eat this — and be truly satisfied. Trust me, you will be. You will start to wonder if you’re cheating… maybe this is LOADED with calories. If it is — I don’t want to know.

Now — here’s the key: Limit yourself to just one wedge… for now. Seal the rest of the wedges in an airtight container. Then, later in the day, when your stomach starts to growl, just remember that bowl of cabbage in your fridge… with that hard cheese, just waiting for you.

Pull one out, and pop it into the microwave, grate some cheese, and enjoy. Soon, you’ll be craving cabbage all day long. I’ve stored the wedges up to ten days — so make a big batch, and have it one hand for cravings.