Pan Seared Scallops with Creamy Lemon Beet Purée

Easy pan seared scallops with creamy lemon beet purée and herb arugula salad. Perfect for Valentine's Day! 

Disclosure: Thank you to one of our favorite products, Siggi’s for partnering on this recipe.

Pan seared scallops are easy, impressive and incredibly fast to make. They make an ideal date night, or Valentine’s Day, dinner. Paired with a creamy lemon beet puree that’s a stunning pink and a dainty arugula dill side salad, you’ve got a romantic and beautiful dish on your hands. Look how awesome you are and bask in your own glory.

The secret sauce ingredient? It’s creamy, high protein, lower sugar Icelandic yogurt. Siggi’s is one of our kitchen staples and has been for years. Its simple ingredients and amazing, thick texture makes it a holy grail item for us. From eating plain with fruit or using it to create a sauce in savory or sweet dishes, there are so many things you can do with a high quality ingredient. Blending vanilla Siggi’s, which is a natural flavor pairing with delicate seafood like scallops (really- you’re going to be surprised), with beets and lemon makes the most delicious sauce. Because this recipe makes enough sauce for 4 servings, you can either scale up and make double scallops, or use the remaining sauce for crudité dip (especially cucumber and radish). I also think it would work well with waffles or pancakes!

This romantic Valentine’s day worthy dinner is also the perfect thing if you’ve got food allergies on your hands. It’s an entree that’s free from gluten, nuts and eggs but still feels very complete and filling. And if you’re still in that early stage of your relationship, where you’re concerned about how you look when you eat in front of your partner, this is very neat and tidy. We are in that kind of relationship where eating is our favorite activity, and it’s no secret, I will use like 20 napkins and Chris will need none. 

Pan Seared Scallops with Creamy Lemon Beet Purée

INGREDIENTS

• 12 small scallops (about 1/2 a pound)
• sea salt 
• 1/2 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 Tablespoons dry white wine (nice but not necessary) 
• 2 handfuls baby arugula
• 1 teaspoon fresh dill
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• freshly ground black pepper

sauce:

• 1, 5.3 oz container 0% Vanilla Siggi’s yogurt
• 1/3 cup cubed, cooked and peeled beets 
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Remove side muscle of scallop with a pairing knife. 
2. Pat scallops dry with a paper towel.
3. Salt both sides of each scallop to draw out water to improve searing. Let sit for 5 minutes and pat dry again. 
4. Heat a large skillet with olive oil over medium high. Swirl so oil covers bottom of pan evenly. 
5. Cook scallops for 2 minutes on each side, or until a crust forms on each side. If scallops stick to pan, they’re not quite ready to flip. Wait about 20 seconds and try again. Scallops are done once they’re milky white and opaque with an internal temperature of 130 F. 
6. Just before scallops are done add garlic and wine, cook for one minute.
7. To make sauce, add Siggi’s, lemon juice and beets to a food processor or immersion blender. Blend until smooth.
8. To make salad add arugula, dill, vinegar, salt and pepper to a large bowl and toss to combine.
9. To serve, add a streak of sauce, plate scallops on top and add salad.