“I was dramatic. Anything that wasn’t cheese or bread hit my lips, and it felt like torture,” Dinki said, on the phone from her home in New York City. “My mom just couldn’t handle me anymore. She said, ‘You can eat whatever you want, but I’m not going to make it for you.’”

At 10, the future chef went on a steady diet of cereal, bread and American cheese. By 20, although she had left Buffalo for the Big Apple to pursue a career in acting, Dinki was still eating the same limited foods, and it was beginning to affect her social life. Fed up, she slowly started introducing new things into her diet, beginning with a simple tomato.

“I remember what a tomato tasted like when I thought it was really gross,” she said. “And, then I remember when I actually wanted tomatoes on a salad. It takes a long time, but you can actually develop a taste for things. We mostly do that as kids, but you can do it as an adult, too.”

As she expanded her palate and began cooking more, Dinki always began meal preparations by first thinking about the vegetables, rather than the proteins. Eventually, this veggie-focused mindset became her signature “meat on the side” philosophy and the backbone of her first cookbook, Meat on the Side: A Better Way to Cook and Eat, to be published by St. Martin’s Griffin this June.

“This isn’t a book about farm-to-table eating and ‘let’s just put some salt on your broccoli and eat it and love it,’” Dinki said. “No, it’s about seasoning that broccoli with chili powder and smoked paprika, roasting it until it’s really sweet and caramelized and a little charred, and dipping it in chipotle-cheddar cheese sauce. That’s how I want to eat my broccoli. It’s about showing people how to do things with vegetables they never thought of.”

Throughout the book, Dinki serves up healthy, creative dishes like Eggplant “Meatballs,” Red Cabbage and Raspberry Grilled Cheese, Grilled Shittake and Blueberry Flatbread, and Brussels Sprouts and Pear Carbonara. She stretches small amounts of meat across her recipes, incorporates meat-like flavors with caramelized onions and mushrooms, and offers suggestions for incorporating more protein so meat lovers won’t be disappointed either.

“I think we get so focused on the amount of meat when we’re looking at a plate and seeing a big piece of steak, a potato and some broccoli,” she said. “But, if I take that same steak and fold it into a really exciting taco with great seasonings and all of these veggies on top, you’re not thinking, ‘Oh, I’m only eating two to three ounces of meat.’ You’re just eating a steak taco, and it’s really good.”

Dinki spent nearly three years working on the book, testing and re-testing recipes, and is more than ready for readers to have it in their hands.

“I hope [readers] learn more about me and, by the end, trust me in their kitchens,” she said. “I hope they realize there’s more than one way to do the old vegetable staples and start to expand the way they think about veggies.”

Before the book comes out, Dinki will air her second season of “Junk Food Flip,” which premiered in January on the Cooking Channel.

“Growing our family is number one,” Dinki said of her future plans to have children with husband, Evan. “My goal always is to be happy every day. I’m somebody who dreams really big and thinks 20 steps down the road, so I do see my career growing. I see multiple TV shows and adventures and things I get to see and do and say.”

And, along the way, there will be many trips back to Western New York, where most of her family still resides. Dinki said she visits often to see her seven nieces and nephews, and usually ends up spending most of the trip at her childhood home, where her sister now lives with her family.

“As a kid, I just wanted to be artistic and creative,” she said. “Now, when I’m developing a recipe, it’s so creative to me — it’s creating these flavors and putting them together and thinking about the visuals and how people will respond to it. It’s such a funny thing because 10 years ago I never thought I’d be here, but now that I am, I realize how perfect it is for me and what I need out of life.”

Meat on the Side party food

In Meat on the Side, Nikki Dinki reminisces about growing up in Clarence and pays homage to her roots with recipes like Buffalo Cauliflower and Buffalo Cabbage Spring Rolls, both of which offer more nutritious substitutes for the city’s most famous export — the chicken wing. A big football fan, Dinki often turns tailgate food on its head for game days. Here, she shares a healthy twist on classic nachos from her book.

Cabbage Nachos with Tomatillo Salsa

Makes one large plate of nachos

Ingredients:

¾ pound tomatillos (5 to 7), husks removed

1 fresh jalapeño or serrano chile

½ yellow onion, peeled and cut into 4 wedges

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 teaspoons kosher salt

½ cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves

5 cups lightly packed shredded green cabbage (about half a head)

30 large tortilla chips

2 cups shredded Pepper Jack cheese (8 ounces)

¼ cup pickled sliced jalapeño chiles

Preparation:

1. Turn on the broiler to high, if you have that option. Place the tomatillos, fresh jalapeño and onion wedges on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil and stir to coat the vegetables. Broil until the vegetables are tender and slightly charred, 7 to 10 minutes. (You may have to remove the tomatil-los and jalapeños and let the onions cook for an extra minute or so.) Leave the broiler on while you do the next steps.

2. To make the salsa, transfer the charred vegetables to a food processor or blender and add 2 teaspoons of the salt and the cilantro. Process until almost smooth.

3. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Stir in the cabbage and remaining 1 teaspoon salt and cook until the cabbage is tender but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in about half the salsa until combined. You want the cabbage to be coated, but not dripping wet, so stir in as much of the rest of the salsa as you need to get to that point.

4. Arrange the tortilla chips in a single layer on a large oven-safe serving dish. Spread the cabbage mix-ture over the chips and then sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top. Broil the nachos until the cheese has melted and is bubbling. Scatter the pickled jalapeños over the top and serve right away.