Scallops are buttery, delicious, and easily likeable. This special kind of seafood has won our hearts in the casual and fine dining setting. We continue to ask ourselves how we can enhance the flavor of this seafood treat even more. What vegetables goes well with scallops and what would complement its delicate flavor? Here’s a delicious guide to your scallop’s dream meal come true.
Scallops are luxurious and delicious. They’re one of the more sustainably sourced seafood because they are typically harvested from places they are endemic to. This means that scallops don’t feed off other marine life unnaturally and they’re not placed in areas foreign to them.
The size of scallops differs depending on their kind and maturity. In Southeast Asia, scallops are typically smaller than that of the rest of the world. These scallops are turned into sauces and viands. They taste more like the ocean and they’re tougher. In the west, scallops are usually bigger in size. These are the ones that taste buttery and slightly sweet, similar to crab, shrimp, and lobster.
Scallops not only taste good but they’re also very convenient to prepare. They cook well under 5 minutes and they taste great with almost anything.
We’ve put together a list of vegetables that go perfectly well with this prized seafood.
Table of Contents
1. Zucchini
Zucchini is a slightly sweet and slightly bitter vegetable. The most typical way of serving zucchini is grilling it. However, in recent years, weight watchers have turned zucchini into an alternative to pasta noodles. It’s a healthier and low-calorie alternative to starchy pasta noodles. Buttered zucchini noodles go well with seared scallops. The mild flavor complements the natural sweetness of the scallops.
2. Asparagus
A very common food pairing in French fine dining restaurants is scallops with buttered asparagus. When scallops are seasoned perfectly, it creates a delicious burst in your mouth when eaten. In order to support that burst in the mouth, it should be paired with something mild, delicious on its own, and versatile like asparagus. The asparagus tips are perfect to pair with scallops.
3. Bell Peppers
Bell peppers are mild and slightly sweet in flavor. However, when cooked, it adds so much flavor to a dish, almost to the effect of onions. Bell peppers add sweetness and zing to certain foods and it’s quite pleasant. It would be great to serve sauteed bell peppers with the small Southeast Asian scallops. You can also pair confit bell peppers with simple seared large scallops.
4. Eggplant
Have you ever tried moussaka with scallops? If you haven’t, you must try to make this at home. What is moussaka? Moussaka is a Greek dish with eggplant and minced beef or lamb layered on top of each other and covered with cheese. It is generally a rich dish and when scallops are added in between to substitute the meat, this dish turns into something delicious, rich, and less heavy.
5. Potatoes
Potatoes are delicious, versatile and simple. This simple starchy vegetable can be turned into anything you want it to be from mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, to fried fries. With scallops, we like our potatoes served in gratin form. The creamy and tender potatoes go well with the simple scallops and it enhances the flavor of the seafood.
6. Green Beans
Green beans in general are great with any kind of protein. However, with scallops, we like our green beans deep-fried in beer batter then drizzled with grated Parmesan and truffle oil. Sounds fancy, huh? This type of green beans is perfect with deep-fried scallops. Imagine a delicious paper cone of fried seafood with a crunchy vegetable laced with truffle aroma and taste. It’s perfect!
7. Bok choy
Bok choy is a cabbage-like leafy green vegetable that is typically incorporated in Asian cuisine. It has a mild and leafy-like flavor, very close to cabbage and thicker lettuce. This soft stem vegetable is great for stir-fries. If you’re serving up a scallops Cantonese dish filled with ginger flavor, oyster sauce, and rice wine vinegar, bok choy is the vegetable of choice to pair with it.
8. Okra
Okra is not loved by everyone but anyone who loves it will have it with seafood any day. Okra is commonly eaten in the South of the United States. Okra is prepared in many ways like steaming, sauteing, and deep-frying. Okra cut up in small bits, breaded in cornflour and deep-fried in lard is perfect with deep-fried scallops. The uniformed crunch tastes so good together.
9. Corn
We usually like serving scallops with corn on the cob. This simple buttery and sweet corn on the cob side dish is enjoyable to eat with baked cheesy scallop. The corn’s sweetness and the richness of the butter harmonize with the cheesiness of the scallops. It’s good to add a spritz of lemon juice over the scallops.
10. Spinach
Spinach is great with a lot of protein but with scallops, we like our spinach fresh and served with feta cheese and orange vinaigrette. This delicious mixture of flavors is salty, sweet, and tangy, perfect with the humble scallops.
