Grilled Apple Tossed Salad

Caleb is nine months old. In three months I have watched him go from sitting-with-support to crawling-toward-a-pot, which is an extraordinary amount of development in a very short amount of time and which I find simultaneously delightful and slightly alarming in the way that mobility is always alarming once a child achieves it. CJ and Shanice have now rearranged the lower kitchen shelves three times. The lightweight items are up high. The cast iron is where Caleb cannot reach it. He is, they say, motivated.

I am nine months into being a grandmother, which means I have been practicing this role for exactly as long as Caleb has been practicing being a person. We are learning together, him and me, which seems right. I have been a mother. I have been a wife. I have been a daughter and a granddaughter and a student and a teacher and a church cook and a grief survivor and a table builder. Grandmother is the newest version of all of these, layered on top of the others, which is how a self accumulates over fifty-four years: not replaced but added to, not simplified but deepened.

The garden is producing now and I am at the market every Saturday with my basket and my list and my certainty about what is in season and what to do with it. This is the height of the year for me, kitchen-wise: the weeks when everything you grow and buy is at its peak and cooking is less a matter of making something out of what's available and more a matter of not getting out of the way of perfect ingredients. Let the tomato be a tomato. Let the pea be a pea. Let the cast iron do what cast iron does. The cook's job in May is restraint.

This salad is what I mean when I say the cook’s job in May is restraint. I picked up apples at the market on a Saturday morning without any particular plan, and this is what came of them — a little heat from the grill, some good greens, a simple dressing that doesn’t compete. It’s the kind of thing you can assemble while Caleb pulls himself up on the kitchen doorframe and everyone pretends not to notice, which is the exact amount of cooking complexity a grandmother needs on a spring afternoon.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 8 minutes | Total Time: 18 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 large firm apples (such as Honeycrisp or Fuji), cored and sliced into 1/2-inch wedges
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for the grill
6 cups mixed salad greens
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese or goat cheese
1/3 cup candied or toasted walnuts
1/4 cup dried cranberries
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil (for dressing)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat the grill. Preheat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Lightly brush the grates with olive oil to prevent sticking.
Prepare the apples. Toss apple wedges with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Arrange in a single layer.
Grill the apples. Grill apple wedges for 3–4 minutes per side, until grill marks appear and the apples are just softened but still hold their shape. Remove and let cool slightly.
Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the apple cider vinegar, honey, and Dijon mustard. Slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup olive oil while whisking until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper.
Assemble the salad. Place salad greens in a large bowl. Top with grilled apple wedges, red onion, cheese, walnuts, and dried cranberries.
Dress and serve. Drizzle dressing over the salad just before serving and toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Grilled Apple Tossed Salad — Letting the Season Speak for Itself