Pan Seared Scallops Over Warm Spinach Pomegranate Salad
The holidays are right around the corner and as I was strolling through the produce aisles at my local grocery store I saw a pomegranate begging me to be placed in my cart! Pomegranates are such a festive fruit that I couldn’t just walk away so I tossed one into my cart and made my way to the check out. Once I got home I placed the pomegranate in my fruit bowl and went about my daily life. As I walked past it time to time I would think to myself “what am I going to do with this?”
I often make a warm spinach salad that I can’t get enough of. No really, I could eat the whole bowl myself! The salad happened to be on my meal plan for the week and while browsing through Pinterest I kept seeing pictures of delicious scallop dishes. So I decided to put all of them together to create this awesome dinner dish and an answer to the question “what I was going to do with that darn pomegranate?!”
Don’t be afraid it looks as if it took me days to prepare! The best part?!?!? It only took me about 30 mins from start to finish! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Please feel free to comment below and let me know how you liked it!
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 pound of fresh sea scallops
- 8 slices of bacon
- 1/4 of a small red onion
- 5oz fresh organic baby spinach
- 4oz Amish blue cheese
- 1/4-1/2 of a pomegranate (seeds only)
- 1 tbsp local honey
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- salt & pepper
1.First be sure you dry your scallops. I like to let them sit out on a bunch of paper towels and I continue to pat the tops until the scallops are dry. This will help you to get a good crisp on the scallops.
2. While the scallops are drying, dice up the bacon and fry in a large pan over medium heat stirring until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and discard the grease. Set the pan off to the side. Do not wash the pan!
3. Season the scallops with salt and pepper.
4. In a heated large clean pan place 2 tbsp of olive oil. Allow the oil to get hot and place the scallops in the pan. Cook for 6 mins on each side. Don’t OVER COOK THEM!!!
5. Place the spinach in a large serving bowl.
6. Dice the red onion. Crumble the blue cheese and add both to the spinach.
7. Cut the pomegranate in half. Be careful and be sure to use a cutting board that you don’t care about because pomegranates STAIN!!!!!! Fill a bowl with cold water and as you pull the seeds aways from the skin place them in the water. This helps because the white flesh that is left on the seeds will float to the top of the water and the seeds will sink. You can skim the flesh off the top and drain the water after to have nice clean seeds. My kids really enjoyed watching me pull out the seeds!!!! I used about a cup of seeds which was about a half of the pomegranate.
8. After you have the seeds take the pan that you cooked the bacon in and place it over medium heat. Whisk the honey, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, the remaining olive oil and the pomegranate seeds together in the warm pan. Whisk until heated.
9. Pour the warm dressing over the salad and cover the bowl with a dish towel. Let set for 2-3 mins.
10. Place salad onto a plate and arrange the scallops on top of the warmed salad.
11. ENJOY!!!
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