As a cookbook author and host of Bravo's Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi spends a lot of time surrounded by food—really good food. Resisting the temptation to gorge on all of the contestants' dishes (not to mention her own, when she's recipe testing) takes an act of serious willpower, but to Lakshmi, it all comes down to following one simple rule.
"I'm a big believer in using vegetables to guide you," she says. "I make sure my plate is 50 percent fruit and vegetables, and I try to make it as colorful as possible. Another 25 percent is protein, but that doesn't have to be meat. It could be lentils, black beans, white beans, kidney beans—I love a lentil salad or stew." The last 25 percent? Whole grains.
Of course, Lakshmi's guidelines also require you to stick to regular meals and avoid snacking mindlessly throughout the day—a struggle that is all too real for many of us—so we asked her to share exactly what that looks like.
Tea Time Starts Early.
"I usually have two to three cups of tea before 10 a.m.," Lakshmi says. "For breakfast, I'll have two eggs, mostly poached, with pumpernickel or sourdough toast. I try not to have toast if I'm not feeling skinny that day.
"I'll also have a scoop of cottage cheese and I try to have grapefruit, blackberries or blueberries."
She Fuels Up with a Pre-Lunch Drink.
"Sometime before noon, I'll have a homemade vegetable juice," she says. "It's usually a mix of kale, ginger, celery, carrots and lemon."
Lunch Is A Big Bowl of Deja Vû.
"My lunch is usually leftovers from dinner. I'm usually in the act of emptying out the fridge, so on Wednesdays, I might have leftovers from Taco Tuesday," she says. Lakshmi often makes a big batch of tomatillo sauce and portions out every ingredient separately, so that the leftover don't get soggy—and can be mixed and matched to make all-new meals.
"I'll heat up some frozen rice and mix it with leftover black beans," she says.
Other go-to meals? "Dosas—they're like crêpes—that I fill with vegetables and have those with coconut chutney, or a porridge with lentils," she says. "I'm always making some kind of stew that I can serve over rice, too."
She Likes Her Yogurt on the Savory Side.
Sometimes, Lakshmi will snack on Greek yogurt, but she's not about all of the fruity flavors out there. "I'm not a big fan of them," she says. "I grew up with salty yogurt, so it's strange for me to have sweet ones."
She Cooks for a Crowd.
Lakshmi doesn't just supersize her Taco Tuesday dinner; She'll often cook two whole chickens in a Dutch oven, even though she's usually just cooking for her and her daughter.
"I'll keep eating off of it throughout the week," she says, often pairing the chicken with lemon rice (sometimes homemade, sometimes from her Easy Exotic line of frozen rice), vegetables or a large salad.
She's Not Big on Booze.
Some people may end the day with a glass of wine or a cocktail, but that's not Lakshmi's style. "It's not worth the calories to me," she says. "Plus, it's just me and my kid most of the time. I don't drink hard alcohol that often."
If she's celebrating something big, she'll toast with a glass of Champagne (she keeps two bottles chilling in her fridge, actually), or on rare occasion, a shot of tequila.
She'll Skip Chocolate Desserts in Favor of This.
Like any human being, Lakshmi has her own guilty pleasure foods, which she keeps in the bottom drawer of her fridge.
"That's where I store the juiciest things," she admits. "For me, that's cheese—I have four or five kinds at any given time, from Manchego to a French triple cream—and for my daughter, it's string cheese or Greek yogurt sticks."
Lakshmi eats in the "order of importance," starting with fruits and vegetables, which means when it comes time to treat herself, she's practically full—ergo less likely to eat an entire wedge of cheese in one sitting.
It's a simple strategy, and clearly, it works.
PIN IT FOR LATER:
Follow Delish on Instagram.
