This past August, I arranged a clever trade with old friend Aleza, whom I studied with in Jerusalem a quarter century ago. I gave her my minivan for a road trip in exchange for her Brooklyn apartment. Bea and I had a marvelous time in New York City. I fulfilled my promise of taking them to the American Girl Doll store; visited with an old classmate and his kids; saw the Dog Museum (very small, but cheap); did the kid’s scavenger hunt at the Brooklyn Museum; perused the shelves at The Strand; and even made it to a Queer Comic-Con. It was a very full trip.

But my favorite part of the trip was the Palestinian restaurant Ayat, in Ditmas Park near where we were staying. I have been curious about Palestinian food for years. The dishes sounded completely unfamiliar to me, offering tastes and flavors of the Levant that I’d only read about. It was a chard and date salad, finished with almonds, ricotta salata, and a honey citrus dressing, that drew me in. And it was wonderful!

The food was so good that night that I dragged my 10 year old back to try more new-to-me foods — maklouba and fattat lahma — for a second time during our short visit. I savored my leftovers from Ayat, even making sure to bring home leftovers for my husband to try, who agreed with me that it was pretty fantastic and nothing like anything we’d had before.

It wasn’t long before I had to try my hand at recreating the chard salad for my own table. My citrus dressing had a combination of orange and tangerine juices (leftover from Lilli’s bat mitzvah brunch), but a pure orange juice, or a combination of orange and lemon or lime, would work just as well.

I paid much more attention to the dressing than the measurements of the almond slices, dates, and ricotta salata. I used a heavy hand with all of them, but will offer my best guess so you, too, can make and devour this wonderful salad.

Chard and Date Salad with Honey Citrus Dressing

Ingredients

For the salad

One bunch chard, cleaned and stripped from its stems

One quarter cup almond slices

Two tablespoons crumbled ricotta salata

12 dates, pitted and chopped

For the dressing

3 Tablespoons citrus juice

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

4 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Tablespoon honey

Kosher salt, to taste

Directions

To prepare the chard, pile the leaves and roll them up like a cigar. Using a sharp knife, cut the rolled leaves into chiffonade strands and add to a large salad bowl.

Collect the dressing ingredients into a small jar and shake. If you don’t have a spare jar, whisk everything together in the small bowl. Using a leaf of chard, test the dressing. Season to taste.

Pour the dressing over the chard and give it a good massage with your hands for a solid minute or two.

Carefully — and I really do want to emphasize this, carefully — toast the almonds in a pan for about three minutes, making sure not to burn them. Add to the almonds and chopped dates to the salad bowl, then crumble in the ricotta salata.

Mix to combine.

Serve and enjoy.

Molly Parr lives in Florence with her husband and two young daughters. She’s been writing her food blog, Cheap Beets, since 2010. Send questions or comments to molly.parr@gmail.com.