Seared Shrimp and Scallops with Whipped Goat Cheese, Rainbow Ribbon Salad, and Lime-Cider Vinaigrette
Golden-seared scallops and garlicky wild shrimp over a cloud of whipped goat cheese, with crisp ribbons of golden beet, rainbow carrot, and zucchini tossed in a bright lime-cider vinaigrette, a warm seasonal vegetable, and a scatter of toasted pepitas and cilantro.
Yield: Serves 4 · Active: 35 min · Total: 40 min · Best in North America from late summer into fall, when zucchini, beets, and carrots overlap (with a warm vegetable option for every season) · Best eaten: early evening
Ingredients
Whipped goat cheese
4 oz soft goat cheese, at room temperature
3 tbsp thick sheep's or goat's milk yogurt
Zest of ½ lime
Pinch of Baja Gold sea salt
Lime-cider vinaigrette
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp raw honey
1 small shallot, finely minced (optional)
Pinch of Baja Gold sea salt
Rainbow ribbon salad
1 medium golden or Chioggia beet, peeled
2 rainbow carrots, peeled
1 zucchini
Warm vegetable: choose one by season
Fall and winter, warm Brussels sprouts: 3 cups shredded Brussels sprouts and 1 sliced shallot, sautéed in 1 tbsp grass-fed ghee with a pinch of salt for 3–4 minutes, until bright green and just tender. Finish with a splash of vinaigrette.
Spring, blistered asparagus: 1 bunch asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces, seared in 1 tbsp ghee over high heat for 3–4 minutes. Finish with lime.
Summer, blistered green beans: ½ lb trimmed green beans, seared in 1 tbsp ghee with 1 sliced garlic clove for 5–6 minutes, until charred in spots. Finish with lime.
Seafood
12 oz large dry-packed sea scallops (about 8–10), side muscles removed
12 oz large wild shrimp (about 12–16), peeled and deveined
¾ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
2 tbsp grass-fed ghee
1 tbsp grass-fed butter
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
Squeeze of lime
To finish: toasted pepitas or hazelnuts, fresh cilantro, flaky salt, and lime wedges
Method
Whip the goat cheese. Whip the goat cheese, yogurt, lime zest, and salt until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
Make the vinaigrette. Whisk everything together.
Make the ribbons. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the beet, carrots, and zucchini into long, thin ribbons. Toss them with 2 tbsp of the vinaigrette and let them sit 10 minutes to soften slightly.
Cook your warm vegetable.
Sear the scallops. Pat the scallops and shrimp completely dry and season with salt. Heat the ghee in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Sear the scallops 1½–2 minutes without moving them, until deeply golden, then flip and cook about 1 minute more, until the centers are just slightly translucent. Move them to a plate.
Cook the shrimp. Add the butter and garlic to the same pan, then the shrimp, and cook 1–2 minutes per side, just until pink. Finish with a squeeze of lime.
Plate. Swoosh whipped goat cheese across each plate, pile the ribbon salad and warm vegetable alongside, and arrange the scallops and shrimp on top. Drizzle with the remaining vinaigrette, and finish with pepitas, cilantro, and flaky salt.
Storage: Seafood is best right away (leftovers keep up to 2 days refrigerated); whipped goat cheese, up to 5 days; vinaigrette, up to 1 week. Ribbons are best dressed just before serving.
Nourishment Notes
Sea scallops — lean complete protein, B12, selenium, zinc, and magnesium.
Wild shrimp — protein, selenium, iodine, and astaxanthin.
Goat cheese and yogurt — calcium, protein, and mostly A2-type casein; the whipped cheese is never heated, so the yogurt's live cultures stay intact.
Beets — dietary nitrates, folate, and betalains.
Carrots — beta-carotene, made more absorbable by the vinaigrette's olive oil.
Zucchini — potassium and vitamin C.
Brussels sprouts and asparagus — glucosinolates in the sprouts, and folate and inulin in the asparagus.
Pepitas — zinc, magnesium, and iron.
Raw apple cider vinegar and lime — acetic acid and vitamin C.
For your cycle: The seafood's zinc and selenium and the beets' folate make this a lovely follicular- and ovulatory-phase plate, and scallops' magnesium supports 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
Shrimp — wild-caught U.S. Gulf, U.S. Atlantic, or Argentine red shrimp, with no added sodium tripolyphosphate
Goat cheese — a soft farmstead goat cheese from a local dairy, organic when you can find it
Sheep's or goat's milk yogurt — organic, plain, and full-fat; raw from a local dairy, or Bellwether Farms
Beets, carrots, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, green beans, shallot, garlic, cilantro, and limes — organic, from a farmers' market
Pepitas or hazelnuts — organic and raw; Oregon hazelnuts
Raw apple cider vinegar — organic, with the mother (Bragg)
Raw honey — organic, local, and unfiltered
Grass-fed butter and ghee — organic, cultured butter from 100% grass-fed cows; grass-fed ghee
Extra virgin olive oil — organic, single-estate, harvest-dated, in dark glass
Salt — Baja Gold sea salt; Maldon for finishing
— Anna aka Food Marshall