Broccoli Pearl Crunch Salad

4.82 from 11 votes

Broccoli Pearl Crunch Salad

Recipe video above. 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. :)

It's a riot of textures, flavours and colours, and just a great way to use broccoli in a different way. Serve this for lunch with friends, dinner on balmy evenings, or a lazy Sunday lunch with a glass of your favourite white.

Prep Time25

Cook Time15

Marinating / cooling time:30

Total Time1 10

Course: Salad meal

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: broccoli salad, gourmet couscous salad, pearl couscous salad, spoon salad

Servings:

Calories: 577cal

Author: Nagi

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)

Cups - Metric

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!

Notes

1. Broccoli chopping - Video is helpful! If using the thick broccoli stem, peel the tough outer layer, cut into batons then small pieces.

Be sure to use all the "confetti" broccoli floret bits that normally annoy me cause they fly all over the kitchen, but in today's recipe I love how the little green bits look in the salad. They will, however, still get stuck in your teeth. 😅

2. Vinegar substitutes - white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, sherry vinegar.

3. Pearl couscous - also known as Israeli Couscous or Gourmet Couscous, the giant form of the more common tiny couscous. In Australia, you will find it in the pasta aisle of Woolworths and Coles next to ordinary tiny couscous, and it costs around the same.

Substitute with the same amount of tiny pasta (like risoni/ozo, tiny stars), or 2 1/4 cups cooked rice, barley, quinoa, farro, lentils etc.

4. Salami - You could use small cubed pieces of cheese or feta instead, though if you want to make it a lighter side salad type, then you can omit it altogether.

Note: The salami doesn't crisp up because it's jumbled with onions, but you won't miss the crisp, this salad has loads of crunch from the broccoli and the almonds.

5. Nut alternatives - pistachios, pecans, sunflower seeds, pepitas

Keeps for 3 days, even dressed.

Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings.

Nutrition