Pan-Seared Scallops with Garlic-Chive Sauce, Celery Root Purée, and Roasted Root Vegetables
Golden-seared scallops over a silky celery root purée, with caramelized rainbow carrots, parsnips, and golden beets and a bright, buttery garlic-chive sauce spooned over everything.
Yield: Serves 2 · Active: 30 min · Total: 45 min · Best in North America from late fall through winter, when celery root and root vegetables are at their sweetest after frost · Best eaten: early evening
Ingredients
Celery root purée
1 medium celery root (about 1 lb), peeled and cubed
¾ cup chicken bone broth, plus water to cover
1½ tbsp grass-fed butter
¼ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
Roasted roots
3 small rainbow carrots, halved lengthwise
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into sticks
1 small golden beet, peeled and cut into ½-inch wedges
1½ tbsp ghee or extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of Baja Gold sea salt
A few fresh thyme leaves
Garlic-chive sauce
2 tbsp grass-fed butter, divided
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
⅓ cup chicken bone broth
2 tbsp fresh chives, finely sliced
1–2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Pinch of Baja Gold sea salt
Scallops
8–10 large dry-packed sea scallops, side muscles removed
½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
1 tbsp ghee
Method
Roast the roots. Heat the oven to 425°F. Toss the carrots, parsnip, and beet with the ghee, salt, and thyme and roast 30–35 minutes, flipping once, until caramelized and tender. Cutting the beet a little smaller helps it finish at the same time as the carrots and parsnip.
Make the purée. Simmer the celery root in the broth and water, covered, 15–20 minutes until very tender. Drain, saving the liquid, and blend with the butter, salt, and enough cooking liquid to make it silky. Keep warm.
Sear the scallops. Pat them completely dry and season with salt. Heat the ghee in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat until very hot, and sear 1½–2 minutes without moving them, until deeply golden. Flip and cook about 1 minute more, until the center is slightly translucent. Move them to a plate.
Make the sauce in the same pan. Lower the heat to medium, add 1 tbsp butter and the garlic, and stir 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the broth, scraping up the browned bits, and simmer 1–2 minutes to reduce slightly. Off the heat, swirl in the remaining butter, then stir in the chives, lemon juice, and salt.
Plate. Swoosh celery root purée onto each plate, arrange the roasted roots alongside, set the scallops on top, and spoon the garlic-chive sauce over everything.
Storage: Scallops are best right away. Purée and roasted roots keep up to 4 days refrigerated.
Nourishment Notes: Scallops bring lean complete protein, B12, selenium, zinc, and magnesium. Celery root offers vitamin K, phosphorus, potassium, and fiber. Rainbow carrots bring beta-carotene (made more absorbable by roasting in fat), plus anthocyanins in the purple ones and lutein in the yellow. Parsnips offer fiber, folate, and potassium. Golden beets bring folate, nitrates, and betaxanthins, the pigments behind their golden color. Garlic and chives add allicin and vitamin K. Grass-fed butter offers vitamins A and K2 and butyrate.
For your cycle: Scallops' magnesium and zinc and the roots' steady carbohydrate make this especially comforting in the luteal phase.
Sourcing
Sea scallops — dry-packed (never treated with STP), ivory to pale peach; Maine diver scallops in season (roughly December through April), or farmed scallops year-round
Celery root, rainbow carrots, parsnips, golden beets, garlic, chives, thyme, and lemons — organic, from a farmers' market
Grass-fed butter and ghee — organic, cultured butter from 100% grass-fed cows; grass-fed ghee
Chicken bone broth — homemade from pasture-raised chicken, or Bonafide Provisions (organic, sold frozen)
Extra virgin olive oil — organic, single-estate, harvest-dated, in dark glass
Baja Gold sea salt
— Anna aka Food Marshall