Broccoli Pearl Crunch Salad

 This is a meal-worthy salad designed to be eaten with a spoon: finely chopped broccoli tossed with slippery pearl couscous, plumped dried cranberries and a nutty salami fry up with red onion and garlic. The red wine vinaigrette is zesty but not too sour thanks to a smidge of honey, and finishing with parmesan is optional, but not really. :)

Ingredients

Marinated broccoli:

1 1/2 medium heads broccoli (4 cups chopped small, spoon-eating size)(Note 1)

1 tbsp red wine vinegar (Note 2)

1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt

Couscous and plumped cranberries:

1 cup pearl couscous (Note 3)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Nutty salami fry up:

1 tsp olive oil

100g/ 3 oz salami , chopped into 1x1.25cm pieces (0.2 x 1/2"), or bacon (Note 4)

1/3 cup almonds , unsalted, natural (or roasted), chopped into big pieces (Note 5)

1 red onion , halved, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves , finely minced

Red Wine Vinegar Honey Dressing:

2 tbsp red wine vinegar (Note 2)

1 tbsp honey (sub maple, or 2 tsp sugar)

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 garlic clove , finely minced

1 tsp lemon zest , optional

1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

Serving:

1/4 cup+ parmesan , finely grated (crumbled feta also lovely)

Instructions

Dressing - Shake ingredients in a jar.

Chop broccoli into small pieces - think, spoon scoop-able size. I slice wads of florets into ~1/2cm / 0.2" thick slices, spread out on the board then run the knife through, chopping like you would herbs until you have small pieces no bigger than 1.5cm / 0.6" long, suitable for scooping. Try to make the floret stem parts a bit smaller. (Note 1)

Marinated tender-crisp broccoli - Measure out 4 cups of broccoli and put in a bowl. Scrape in all the scattered little floret "confetti"! Toss with the vinegar, 1/4 tsp salt and 2 tablespoons of the Dressing. Leave for 30 minutes - softens slightly and takes the raw edge off.

Couscous and cranberries - Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Cook the couscous for 5 minutes, adding cranberries for last 30 seconds (they plump!). Drain well, then return to saucepan. Toss with 2 tablespoons of Dressing (while hot), then set aside for 10 minutes to cool and absorb flavour.

Nutty Salami Fry up - Heat the olive oil over medium high in a large non-stick pan. Add the salami and cook for about 1 1/2 minutes to give them a head start. Then add the almonds and onion, cook for 2 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another 1 minute until the salami is golden (it won't crisp though - Note 7) and the onion is softened. Tip it on top of the broccoli, let cool for 10 minutes.

Toss - Add couscous, all the remaining Dressing and toss well. Tumble into a serving bowl, sprinkle with parmesan then serve!