Brussel Sprout Salad

A great salad with no cooking, except for a few seconds to toast the seeds, and that's not absolutely necessary. It's good as a side dish or with some bread or rolls as a nice lunch. The only time consuming part is with the Brussels sprouts themselves. The best way to prepare them is to split the sprouts lengthwise, then to remove the stem from the sprout halves by cutting a 'V' at the bottom (see more in the instructions below). You can easily vary the amounts of the ingredients if you prefer; for instance, if you like pears, just chop up some more and eat them yourself, don't fool with the recipe!!! You thought I was going to say "add them to the salad," which you certainly can do. Haha  I suggest making a good quantity of the dressing by adjusting the amounts below, and then storing the extra amount in a jar or other glass container, not metal or plastic, as the vinegar can interact with these materials. I don't care much for sour foods, so I use more honey in the dressing, but I don't recommend reducing the amount of vinegar, as you want the vinegar to help preserve the salad, and it will keep in the refrigerator for a few days. If you make some extra dressing, you can add a little of it to future servings. 

Ingredients (numerous servings):

1 pound Brussels sprouts, washed, stem removed, then sliced
1 pear, green or red, skin on, rinsed, cored and chopped  
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup pepitas (or sunflower seeds), lightly toasted
1/2 cup crumbled or shaved Pecorino Romano

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 or 3 tablespoons honey (your preference for sweetness)
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
(optional) 1/2 teaspoon salt (the cheese has salt)

Rinse the Brussels sprouts, remove the stem and any discolored leaves. To remove the stem, split the sprouts lengthwise. You can then easily see the split stem. Remove it by cutting a 'V' shape. Slice the sprout halves crosswise into 3 or sometimes 4 pieces. Add the sprout slices to a bowl of water as you go. Stir the sliced sprouts around in the water with your hand. Drain the sprouts and lay them out on some doubled paper towels to drain well. The "heavy duty" work is done. Put the sliced sprouts into a large bowl, add the chopped pear, dried cranberries, seeds and Pecorino Romano. (It isn't necessary to toast the seeds, but if you'd like to do so, simply heat a skillet over medium heat and then add the seeds. Shake the skillet or stir the seeds and toast them until they just begin to turn lightly browned.) In a glass jar, bottle or other glass container, add the dressing ingredients and shake or mix to blend everything. Give it a little taste to see if you want to add more honey (or more vinegar, if you like a more sour taste). Add the dressing to the salad and mix well to distribute the dressing throughout the salad. You can serve the salad then, but it's better if it has a minimum of a couple of hours in the refrigerator. Cover and store the unused portion in the refrigerator for a few days.   

WORD HISTORY:
Brook-There is a verb in English that has come to be spelled the same way as the noun, but it is unrelated to the noun. If you are interested in the verb form, here is the link,^ but this is the noun meaning, "a small stream," but also meaning "marshy land" in some parts of England (see relatives below). While the origin of this word is considered to be uncertain to some, I'm pretty much convinced it goes back to Indo European "mrog/mreg," meaning "marshland,"^^ which was from Indo European "mereg," which meant "borderland," with the idea that particular geographic features have always been used to set the boundaries of land possession, until surveying became the legal means for doing so. "Mreg/mrog" produced Germanic "broki/broka," meaning "wetland, marshland," with Indo European "mr" becoming Germanic "br." Old Irish, a Celtic language, had "mruig," meaning "parcel of land, homestead," but later this became "bruig," which means it also changed to "br," or that it borrowed this form from Germanic. The Germanic form seemingly did not take hold in the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, but it did become a part of the West Germanic branch and it gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "broc," meaning "small stream" (perhaps from the notion of runoff from marshy lands producing steams; thus, "brooks''), but it also means "marshy land, wetland" in parts of southern England, which is right in line with the original meaning. This later became "brook." Relatives in the other West Germanic languages: German has "Bruch" (marshy land with trees and bushes), Low German has "Brook" (marshland, swampy ground), but there are variant forms in Low German, as Low German is not standardized, with "Bröcke" being another common form, Dutch has "broek" (marsh, swamp). Frisian is tough to research for many words, but I found "brôc" and "brouk," but I'm not certain if either word is still in use as a stand alone word.       

^ The history of the verb form "brook" is in the article at this link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/06/tyrolean-style-liver-tiroler-leber.html

^^ If "brook" does go back to "mreg/mrog," this would make it a distant relative of "mark," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "margin," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French, with likely reinforcement from Latin.