In the end, my salad is a metaphor for interfaith cooperation.

I made dinner for Cecelia!

I wanted to make her something so special because Cecelia is so cool and I want her to think I'm so cool too. Yeah! So I spent all day thinking about what things Cecelia might like to eat.

Here are other food-related things I thought about:
* I have a big bag of apples in my refrigerator! I went apple picking last weekend where Hannah, who is 6 and 3/4 years old, taught me how to perfectly pluck apples off their branches, and I wanted to do Hannah and her wisdom justice.
* I think feta cheese (a very dry crumbly feta) tastes perfect with cilantro. I've been using cilantro as a salad green, lately - a trick I owe to Natalie. I try to chop up so much that it makes me nervous; I think, "Clearly, that's too much cilantro!" and then I toss it with some coarsely chopped greens and some reckless abandon. Dressing these two together (rather than adding the cilantro to the dressing first) keeps the cilantro crisper, and the bounty is never over powering.
* I have food-related outbursts WAY too often. Generally, it's inappropriate to burst out, food-enraptured, about how delicious one's lunch is while everyone else is (a) hard at work and (b) eating leftovers that should have been discarded long, long ago (c) not eating said deliciousness. But now it's Ramadan and COMPLETELY inappropriate for me to have such outbursts, Days of Interfaith Youth Service Program Associate that I am. I try to make up for this by being all, "Wow Jenan, have you ever heard of epicurious.com? They totally have a section on recipes for Ramadan. Isn't that so great?" Actually, Jenan who is also so cool, told me that she spent one entire Ramadan (which happened to fall on Thanksgiving break) at her parents' house watching the Food Network all day long, in order to decide what she would make that night to break fast. Yeah!

Here's the salad I made for Cecelia.

Spiced Grilled Apple and French Lentil Salad

1/2 cup french lentils, washed and picked over
2 large cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
7 large green leaf lettuce leaves
at least 1 cup of cilantro
1/2 cup dry feta, crumbled
1/4 scant teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 scant teaspoon garam masala
a dash of cayenne pepper
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large apple, cored and cut into 1/8-inch thick wedges
salt & pepper
oil for grilling the apples

cook the lentils:
in a small pot, cover lentils generously with water; add a sprinkle of sea salt, 1 whole garlic clove and bay leaf. bring to a boil and then simmer 25-40 minutes, until lentils are tender but not falling apart.

meanwhile....

prepare the greens:
wash, spin and coarsely chop lettuce, and then put into a medium sized bowl. follow suit with the cilantro, reserving about 2 tablespoons.

prepare the dressing:
in a small pan over medium heat, toast the cinnamon, garam masala and cayene until just fragrant. mmmm. let cool. in a small bowl, wisk together vinegar, oil, remaining garlic clove (pressed), toasted spices and salt and pepper to taste.

how are your lentils doing? they should be close to done. why not preheat your well-seasoned, cast iron grill pan? how about over medium-high heat?

prepare the apples:
brush one side of each apple slice with a thin coating of olive oil, then sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. when the grill pan is hot, place them oil side down on the pan, brushing un-oiled side with oil and sprinkling on some more salt and pepper. grill until dark grill lines apear on the underside and the edges of the apple begin to turn transparent. flip and grill (i'd like to be more precise here, but honestly, i wasn't really watching the clock. i'm not sure how long it takes to grill apple slices).

finish the salad:
while the apples are grilling, remove the garlic clove (which should remain whole; if not, your lentils will be a bit more garlicy, but really it's okay, the garlic is quite mild by now) and the bay leaf from the lentils and drain. toss with reserved cilantro and 2 tablespoons dressing.

toss the greens with the remaining dressing and the crumbled feta (reserving just a touch of the feta). divide greens between two plates, keeping the greens to one side of the plate. on the other half of the plate, arrange half of the grilled apple slices and pile the lentils on top, sprinkling each with a bit of feta.

This way you have two very different salads happily coexisting: one that is crisp and bright and fresh, one that is more muted and warm and soft, but with the shared flavors of the dressing, showing them that they can get along despite their differences. All to the benefit of your tummy. Now that's cooperation!