Grilled Cabbage makes for tasty, healthy meal

Grilled cabbage … yeah, that’s right. Now, before you click out of this page because you’re totally grossed out, don’t. Definitely give this one a try.

It all started when I joined my bride for a month of healthy, clean eating. The Whole30 is a program that strips the bad foods from your daily intake, like sugar, grains, dairy and legumes.

Replace your daily meals with “moderate portions of meat, seafood, and eggs; lots of vegetables; some fruit; plenty of natural fats; and herbs, spices, and seasonings. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re whole and unprocessed.”

The no-no’s

Here’s an easy-to-follow list of the no-no’s for the Whole30:

• Do not consume added sugar, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, date syrup, stevia, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.

• Do not consume alcohol, in any form, not even for cooking. (And ideally, no tobacco products of any sort, either.)

• Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, sprouted grains, and all gluten-free pseudo-cereals like quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat. This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn, and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch, and so on. Again, read your labels.

• Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).

• Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat, or sheep’s milk products like milk, cream, cheese, kefir, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, or frozen yogurt.

• Do not consume carrageenan, MSG, or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.

• Do not consume baked goods, junk foods, or treats with “approved” ingredients. Recreating or buying sweets, treats, and foods-with-no-brakes (even if the ingredients are technically compliant) is totally missing the point of the Whole30, and will compromise your life-changing results. These are the same foods that got you into health-trouble in the first place—and a pancake is still a pancake, even if it’s made with coconut flour.

Grilled Cabbage 101

Now that you have a feel for what we were getting ourselves into, you can see how we had to think outside the box for healthier grilling.

Paired with a medium-rare pork chop, (an internal temperature of 145 degrees, easily checked with a Thermoworks Thermapen MK4) the warm, tender grilled cabbage is quite the tasty, healthy meal off the grill.

Want to make this Whole30-approved dish for yourself off the grill? Check out this recipe and let us know how it turns out.

Grilled Cabbage with tangy Pork Cutlets

Want to make this Whole30-approved dish for yourself off the grill? Check out this recipe and let us know how it turns out.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

• 1 head of cabbage
• 5 T light olive oil
• 2 T salt-free seasoning (optional)
• 4 thick-cut pork loin cutlets
• 2 pinches coarse black pepper
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper
• 1 t garlic purée
• 1 egg
• 1 T fresh lemon juice
• 1 c light olive oil
• 1 dash sea salt
• 1 dash black pepper
• 2 T Sriracha

Instructions

 

• Quarter your cabbage and season with oil and dry seasonings.
  
• Season with oil and dry seasonings.
  
• Place oiled, seasoned cabbage directly over the coals for 4-5 minutes, or until the edge begin to char. Move to the cool side of grill until the end of your grill session.
  
• Sear your pork cutlets and move away from heat for about 20 minutes, or until an internal temperature of 145 degrees.
  
• Once your pork cutlets reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees, remove from grill with cabbage and let cool down five minutes before serving.
  
• The pork and cabbage go well with a spicy Sriracha mayonnaise made with olive oil, eggs, salt, pepper and Sriracha.

  For the sauce, place egg yolk, lemon juice, water and Sriracha in a Mason jar. Pour over olive oil, then let the contents settle for a moment.

  Using an immersion blender, process until the mayonnaise starts to form. Once you start seeing mayo, gently lift the blender up and down. Continue until all oil is emulsified and thick.

  Season to taste with salt and pepper and store in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.
  

Keyword cabbage, cutlets, healthy, keto, paleo, pork chops, spicy wings