🏷️ Category: side dish
⭐ Difficulty: Medium
⏱️ Time: 45 min
📝 Introduction
Elevate your dining experience with this elegant Pan-Seared Scallops with Citrus Arugula Salad. Perfect as a sophisticated appetizer, this dish combines perfectly seared scallops with a refreshing mix of peppery arugula, sweet Cara Cara oranges, crisp radishes, and Persian cucumbers. Each serving is packed with 9g of protein yet remains light at just 91 calories. The scallops develop a beautiful caramelized crust while staying tender inside, creating a delightful contrast with the zesty citrus dressing. Ready in 45 minutes, this restaurant-quality recipe is surprisingly affordable at $1.60 per serving and covers 11% of your daily vitamin and mineral needs. Impress your guests with this visually stunning and nutritionally balanced dish that's loved by food enthusiasts everywhere.
🥘 Ingredients
• arugula2 cups
• cara cars orange1
• radish2
• persian cucumber0.5
• green onion1
• salt2 servings
• scallops8
👨🍳 Cooking Steps
1
First, you'll want to thinly slice the radishes and cucumber; and, dice the green onion.
2
In a bowl, squeeze half of the Cara Cara orange and pulp, add salt and whisk together.
3
Add in the radish and cucumber slices, arugula and toss together.
4
For the scallops: heat oil in a high heat.
5
Place the scallops flat-side down in the hot pan. Don't overcrowd the pan, or the pan won't stay hot enough to give the scallops a good sear. If you have a lot of scallops, it's better to work in batches.
6
Once you've placed the scallops in the pan, don't touch them. (
7
Let them do their thing!) If you give in to the temptation to move the scallops around the pan, all you'll be doing is preventing them from forming the nice brown crust that you want. Because of variations in scallop thickness, pan temperatures and so on, it's not easy to pinpoint an exact cooking time. But after a couple of minutes, it's OK to peek underneath. If you see a nice, caramel-colored crust on the underside, they're ready to flip.
8
Plate your salad and place 4 scallops on top. Scallops start to turn rubbery if you wait too long to serve them, so get them on the plate right away. And be sure to serve them with the beautiful caramel-colored crust facing up.
