Miya's Kitchen: Seared Scallops Notes

I always joke that I am “fauxdulting” rather than real adulting. This is mainly because I still love that powdery grocery store mac & cheese, I sometimes eat Halo Top ice cream for dinner and I often have to remind myself to put at least one green veggie on my plate. Recently, though, scallops have become my go-to dish, and I have to admit it’s got me feeling like superwoman because I can prep, cook and eat an entire dish, then do the dishes in under an hour.

My usual pairing has quickly become pasta with a butter sauce created from deglazing the pan, but tonight I wanted to try something new. Normally I would go with quinoa but my pantry, in need of a little TLC, was quinoa-less. So I went with Israeli (pearl) couscous instead. How’s that for an upgrade?

I had parsley and chives in my fridge that I wanted to use up so I decided to make an aioli sauce to go with the couscous and scallops. The bright green aioli was almost green enough to quiet that adult voice in my head that reminds me to eat healthy. It wasn’t quite loud enough so I decided to cook up some snow peas to go along with the scallops.

This combo was surprisingly awesome. The aioli had a spicy zing to it and it felt like a quicker (easier) version of pesto. I could definitely see in the future that this aioli could follow the “everything but the kitchen sink” mantra wherein all the leftover herbs get tossed into the blender, and you have an aioli.