A Fresh, Lowfat Twist on Cole Slaw: Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad Recipe with Garbanzo Beans, Broccoli Stems, & Cottage Cheese (2024)

Colorful, crunchy, and good for you - pass the salad, please!

During a live chat last year with Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, authors of the bestselling

(and

, one of my all time favorite cookbooks), my foodie friend

asked an interesting question:

I think that we all tend to read a recipe and then make it our own by adapting it to our tastes or to what is readily available in our areas. At least, that's how I usually cook. For example, the stuffed tomatoes recipe in the Silver Palate calls for ricotta and spinach, and although ricotta is readily available here in in Hawaii, I have a goat farmer friend up the road who makes chevre, so I use that recipe, along with Malabar spinach from my garden.

I'm curious, though—when someone tells you they have changed your recipe around, does it bother you, or are you pleased that you at least gave them a starting point?

And Julee replied:

I really take it as a compliment that someone has made [one of] our recipes and chosen to make it their own. That's what cooking is all about. I have an insatiable curiosity, and so sometimes I want to make the familiar, sometimes the new!!

Since I started Farmgirl Fare three years ago, I've heard from people all around the world who have made my recipes. While I love to know that you've enjoyed them, I also love it when you tell me that one of my recipes inspired you to head into the kitchen and create something of your own.

The other day I received this note from Sarah:

I read your blog regularly, and the other day I was bored at work so I was looking back through your archives. I was intrigued by your broccoli soup with chickpeas. I didn't follow your recipe at all except for the suggestion of an addition of a can of chickpeas.

I had a 2 month old head of cauliflower in my fridge and so I put some onions, garlic, celery, and cauliflower in some broth, cooked it up, added a can of beans, pureed and voila! I did have some pesto on hand so I added a teaspoon of that to the soup and it was amazing. My cat even ate a small bowl of the stuff! Thank you for the inspiration! I don't usually follow recipes but read them compulsively and rework them.

So not only did I inspire Sarah to whip up something delicious with that languishing head of cauliflower in her fridge, but I now have a tasty sounding new recipe for cauliflower soup as well.

Fortunately my dear friend

feels the same way as Julee and I do, because although I doubt anyone would recognize her

in this recipe, it was my inspiration.

Two things about Kat's salad jumped out at me: the intriguing combination of cabbage and spinach (something I'd never thought to do), and the addition of cottage cheese, which I've been tossing into all kinds of stuff lately, like this

.

With those two ideas in mind, I simply took her recipe and ran with it.

Kat's version is versatile; she's rolled it up in chicken breasts, used it in omelets, and even tossed it on a pizza. Mine might be versatile, too, though I have yet to move beyond just gobbling it out of a bowl—or straight from the dish in the fridge.

This flavorful salad is low fat, low carb, and packed with fiber—but you don't have to share that part if you don't want to.

Farmgirl Susan's Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad
Makes about 8 cups - Inspired by Kat's

This is actually the second Kat-inspired salad I created. The first version was made with spinach, but since I never got around to planting any spinach this past spring, I simply made due with what I had on hand this year—and that was plenty of

.

I also took advantage of our

. I'll hopefully get around to sharing the spinach version, too, but since I know a lot of you are looking for

right now, I figured this one needed to come first.

Freshly harvested Swiss chard from the Kitchen Garden

There's a nice crunch to this salad, in part because Swiss chard—which is

—gives you a bonus veggie: the stalks can be

. Choose colorful varieties of chard such as Pink Lipstick, Canary Yellow, and Orange Fantasia and you'll have some of the prettiest 'celery' around.

If you tend to throw out broccoli stalks and only use the florets (shame on you!), this is a great place to toss them instead.

This pseudo slaw—which would be perfect for picnics and potlucks—looks best right after it's been mixed up, but it tastes best after it's chilled for a couple of hours. I use a large serrated knife to thinly slice the cabbage and a big chef's knife to slice the chard, which I kind of roll up into a bundle before cutting.

As always, I urge you to seek out

and organic ingredients; they really do make a difference.

are a staple in my farmhouse pantry and can usually be found for under two dollars a can. I often buy them

.

4 cups thinly sliced Swiss chard leaves
1 cup chopped Swiss chard stems
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded purple cabbage
1 or 2 large handfuls peeled & chopped broccoli stems
7 or 8 large chopped scallions (green onions)
1 15-ounce can organic garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1 16-ounce carton cottage cheese (I use low fat)
1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon onion powder or granulated onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder or granulated garlic
Salt & pepper to taste

More chopped scallions for garnish

Combine Swiss chard leaves, Swiss chard stems, green and purple cabbage, scallions, and garbanzo beans in a large bowl. Add cottage cheese and mix well.

Add vinegar and stir to combine. Sprinkle with onion and garlic powders and mix well. Salt & pepper to taste, adding a little more vinegar if desired. Garnish with chopped scallions and serve.

So how do you use recipes? Do you follow them to the letter? Improvise with what you have on hand, is in season, or that you think might taste even better? Or do you simply look for inspiration and then just totally wing it? If you've written about a favorite recipe creation on your own blog, you're welcome to include a link to it in your comment.

Related posts:

(and other ways to use Swiss Chard)

Other salads & potluck/picnic fare you might enjoy:

(and foodie travel)

(and factory tours)

Still hungry? You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the greener than green foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories, photos, and recipes from her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres—and we're slightly obsessed with salads (and cake).