Get a dancer's bod with Misty Copeland's high-fat diet

Prima ballerina Misty Copeland arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala (Met Gala) to celebrate the opening of "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology" in Manhattan borough of New York, May 2, 2016. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

It may come as a surprise that ballerina Misty Copeland is a big fan of fat, but for the principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, fat is a virtue.

“Eating it, absorbing it and burning it for energy — is the key to building the muscle and providing the strength so important for ballerinas and all elite athletes to perform at such a high level for hours, day in and day out,” Copeland writes in her new book, “Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger and More Graceful You” (Grand Central Life & Style, out now).

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For Copeland, getting her ballerina body meant eating more things like fish, nuts and avocado — all foods that are high in the good kind of fat that sharpens muscle tone and helps our bodies burn unhealthy saturated fat, all while giving us energy. Fiber-packed vegetables like kale and spinach are also a huge part of her diet.

“When dietary fat meets dietary fiber, you’ve got a great duo for shaping your body and boosting weight loss,” she writes.

Here, Copeland shares one of her favorite fat-and-fiber dishes: flounder with sauteed kale. It’s one of her favorite dishes to make for her husband, Olu Evans, who also helped her overcome a binge eating disorder early in her career and find a more healthy way of eating.

Flounder with sauteed kale

For the kale

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced, preferably yellow
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper, or as much as you like
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 bundles kale
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
Splash of white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Hot sauce

For the flounder

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 fillets flounder
Salt and pepper

Heat a large pot over high heat. Drizzle the olive oil into the pot, add the chopped onion and cook until it turns translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the crushed red pepper and garlic. Cook until the garlic turns fragrant, about 1 minute. Tear the kale leaves right off the spine with your hands so that the leaves are in equal-size pieces, and add the kale to the pot. Pour the vegetable broth over the kale and bring to a boil. Add the white wine vinegar along with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let cook for 40 minutes. Add hot sauce to taste.

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About 15 minutes before the kale is finished cooking, prepare the flounder. Heat the oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Season the fish with salt and pepper and add it to the skillet, skin side up. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Turn the fish over and continue cooking 2 to 3 minutes more. Remove the fish from the skillet and serve immediately over the sauteed kale.