Pan Seared Sea Scallop Salad with Cilantro Dressing

Sea scallops are one of those foods I used to avoid making because they seemed…I don’t know…elitist? They’re sophisticated and delicate and so intimidating. I’m terrified of turning them to rubber in the pan, so I usually only go for them at restaurants. But the other night, after one too many of these, my confidence was up and I decided to go for it. On a salad. With a zesty, cilantro dressing. Dreamy. And, it was actually pretty easy.

Ingredients: (makes 2 salads)

1/3 to 1/2 pound large sea scallops (2 to 4 scallops per salad)

3 Tablespoons clarified butter

3 oz baby lettuce (about 2 large handfuls)

course sea salt

1 large tomato, sliced

1 large avocado, sliced

1/3 cup red onion, thinly sliced

1 cucumber, sliced

For the dressing:

1 bunch of cilantro, rough chopped

juice of one lemon

1 clove of garlic

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

a pinch of sea salt

Directions: Start by preparing the sea scallops. Don’t be intimidated! Rinse thoroughly and pat dry with a paper towel. If the scallops have a little foot, cut it off. My scallops were footless…or footloose? Hmmm??? Ok, I’ll stop.

Next, sprinkle both sides with sea sea salt. In a pan, heat the clarified butter on high heat. Once the butter is hot (almost smoking hot), add the scallops to the pan.

 

Cook the scallops for 2 minutes on each side. The sides should have a nice brown sear, like so (from the hot butter).

Once cooked, remove the scallops from the pan. Set aside while you make the dressing.

In a food processor, blend the cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt until smooth and creamy. If the consistency is too runny, add more olive oil.

Assemble the salad with the sea scallops on top.

Drizzle the dressing over top.

 

Dig in.

  

See, that wasn’t so hard was it?

 

Other posts you may enjoy:

1. Black and Pinto Bean Salad with Lime and Cilantro Dressing
2. Endive and Radish Salad with Parsley Lemon Dressing
3. Canary Melon and Cilantro Salad
4. Crispy Tortilla and Black Bean Salad with Creamy Jalapeno Ranch
5. Raw Salad with Honey Lemon Dressing

Tagged as: cilantro, cilantro dressing, Fish, food, healthy recipes, healthy salads, salad, sea scallops, seafood, summer salads