Salad with pan-seared scallops and sugar snap peas
Warmer weather, colorful flowers and gloriously sunny skies aren’t the only things that put spring on people’s lists as the best season.
If you’re a cook, April is when you can look forward to a bounty of fresh herbs, tender lettuces and green vegetables not just in the grocery store, but at local farmers markets.
Sure, you can find fresh vegetables year-round at even the smallest markets. They’re just extra-awesome when you know something is only available for a couple of weeks in spring or has been grown nearby by a local farmer.
Asparagus immediately comes to mind as one of the season’s prized veggies. After months of eating winter root vegetables and lettuces and other greens grown in Mexico or California, now is the time to add the slightly peppery bite of locally grown arugula to the daily menu, along with the crunch of young Romaine and delicate nuttiness of supersweet spinach.
Rhubarb, which pairs so
This elegant dinner salad pairs sweet and tender scallops with fresh spring vegetables. They’re tossed in a simple vinaigrette with mesclun, a mix of young salad greens that include chervil, arugula, leafy lettuces and endive. Serves 2.
12 ounces large sea scallops, tendons removed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1⁄2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided 6 ounces sugar snap peas, strings removed,
halved crosswise
4 cups mesclun
4 radishes, trimmed and sliced thin 1 shallot, sliced thin
1⁄2 teaspoon table salt
1⁄8 teaspoon pepper
wonderfully with strawberries, is also only available fresh in the spring. And who can resist the vibrant green color of two other seasonal favorites in sugar snap peas and green onions?
Delightful, right? Not to mention uber-nutritious and super refreshing.
It all adds up to spring being a great time to add a few new entree salads to
Place scallops on large plate lined with clean dish towel. Place a second clean dish towel on top of scallops and press gently on towel to blot liquid. Let scallops sit at room temperature for 10 minutes while towels absorb moisture.
Meanwhile, combine vinegar and mustard in large bowl. Whisking constantly, drizzle 2 tablespoons oil into vinegar mixture in slow, steady stream. Add snap peas, meslun, radishes and shallot and toss gently to coat.
Divide salad among individual plates or transfer to a serving platter.
Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking.
Add scallops in a single layer, flat side down, and cook, without moving, until well browned, 11 / 2-2 minutes. Flip scallops and continue to cook until sides of scallops are firm and centers are opaque, 30-90 seconds.
Arrange scallops over salad, and serve.
your weekly rotation.
After our long winter nap, we can feel a little rusty coming up with fresh ideas for really great salads or seasonal sides. The three easy recipes from three new cookbooks that follow are a great way to get started.
One from Christopher Kimball’s very engaging latest tome, “Milk Street 365: The All-Purpose
Cookbook for Every Day of the Year,” turns a traditional chicken salad on its head by tossing the meat in a creamy (and super green) tahini-herb dressing instead of mayonnaise. It includes sliced green apple and celery for extra crunch.
A recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s new “The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook, 10th Anniversary Edition” joins sweet and delicately briny scallops with sugar snap peas and the zesty bite of fresh radish.
And for you asparagus lovers? We capture the flavors of the French Riviera with a recipe from French food writer Rosa Jackson’s just-released cookbook, “Nicoise: Market-Inspired Cooking from France’s Sunniest City.” It dishes up asparagus in a zesty but incredibly simple yogurt dressing, with a lovely grated-egg garnish.
All can be prepared in less than a half-hour and are gorgeous on the table. That leaves plenty of time and energy for where most of us really want to be spending time when April’s showers give way to spring sunshine – outdoors.
We’ve also included Milk Street’s “foolproof” vinaigrette recipe for those fuss-free days when a simple bowl of salad greens suffices as a side or starter.
“The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook, 10th Anniversary” by America’s Test Kitchen (April 2024, $40)