Golden, pan-seared scallops with a delicate butter finish, paired with a refreshing salad of crisp greens, cucumber and orange. Our citrus-Dijon dressing brings brightness and balance to this restaurant-inspired dinner for two. With Kitchen Co-op, one chef handles the scallops while the other prepares the salad and plates.
Your Kitchen Co-op
Scallops & Searing
Dry and season the scallops, preheat the pan, sear both sides, butter-baste and check doneness.
Salad & Plating
Prepare cucumber, orange and greens, whisk the citrus-Dijon dressing, assemble the salad and coordinate plating.
Equipment
Ingredients
Check off each ingredient as you prepare it.
Pan-Seared Scallops
Citrus-Dijon Salad
Before You Start — Frozen Scallops
Thaw completely in the refrigerator before the 15-minute preparation begins. Thawing is passive advance preparation and is excluded from the 25-minute recipe time.
Mise en Place
If using frozen scallops, thaw them completely in the refrigerator first. Remove any tough side muscles. Pat each scallop thoroughly dry with paper towels. Keep chilled until shortly before searing.
Wash and thoroughly dry the greens. Cut the cucumber into thin ribbons or slices. Peel the orange and separate into clean segments, removing excess white pith. Divide the components between two plates, leaving space for the scallops.
Combine 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp Dijon mustard and ½ tsp honey. Slowly whisk in 2 tsp olive oil until lightly emulsified. Season with salt and black pepper. Keep separate until serving.
Ready to Cook?
Start the timer when Chef 1 begins preheating the pan.
Coordinated Cooking Timer
Tap any stage to jump to that timestamp and automatically start the stopwatch.
Ready to cook.
Timeline assumes all scallops fit in one uncrowded batch. If necessary, cook in batches and extend the timeline. Scallop size and starting temperature affect cooking time. Confirm doneness rather than relying on the stopwatch.
Let's Cook Together
Set the IKEA induction cooktop to 7/9. Preheat the Henssler pan for approximately 2 minutes. Add 1 tbsp neutral oil. The oil should shimmer without smoking.
Season the dry scallops lightly with salt and pepper immediately before placing them in the pan.
Place the scallops flat-side down in the hot pan, leaving space between them. Do not move or press them.
Sear for approximately 90 seconds until a golden crust develops.
Flip each scallop carefully. Reduce induction to 6/9. Add the butter and aromatics immediately after flipping. Cook and baste the second side for approximately 45 seconds in total, reducing from 6/9 to 5/9 as the butter foams.
Reduce induction to 5/9. Add 10 g butter, lightly crushed garlic and optional thyme.
As the butter foams, tilt the pan slightly and spoon the butter over the scallops during the 45-second second side. This is included in the second-side time, not an additional cooking stage.
Check the thickest scallop with an instant-read thermometer. For fully cooked scallops, aim for 63°C internally.
If needed, continue gently cooking and recheck. Turn induction OFF and transfer the scallops to a clean plate. Avoid leaving them in the hot pan.
Whisk the dressing briefly again. Spoon a restrained amount over the greens, cucumber and orange segments. Keep the salad crisp and lightly dressed, rather than saturated.
Divide the scallops into a slightly larger and smaller serving. For 10 scallops, use 6 for the larger plate and 4 for the smaller. For 8 scallops, divide 5 and 3.
Arrange beside the citrus-Dijon salad. Spoon a small amount of warm pan butter over the scallops, avoiding the salad. Serve immediately.
Michelin-Inspired Plating
Build both salad plates before searing. Set out a spoon and paper towel. Picture 12 o’clock as the edge furthest from you.
Tap a thumbnail to enlarge it. These generated illustrations show placement; use the recipe quantities and your actual portions.
Make a small mound at 10 o’clock on each plate. Keep the right half clear.
Bend cucumber ribbons into loose loops beside the greens. Tuck orange segments between them.
Stir the prepared dressing and spoon it over the salad once. Stop before liquid pools underneath. Keep the scallop area dry.
Place scallops golden-side up in a curved line, with small gaps. Use your chosen larger/smaller split; the images illustrate the four-scallop plate.
Spoon a little warm pan butter beside the scallops, keeping their golden tops and salad clear. Wipe the rim and serve.
Nutrition & MyFitnessPal
The original estimates assume 10 scallops weighing approximately 300 g raw edible weight in total. This is an assumption, not a verified batch weight. Weigh your thawed, drained scallops: if the batch differs from 300 g, these estimates and scaled side allocations need recalculation before logging. Count alone does not establish grams.
| Estimated nutrition | Larger · 60% | Smaller · 40% |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | ~340 kcal | ~230 kcal |
| Protein | ~31 g | ~21 g |
| Carbohydrates | ~21 g | ~14 g |
| Fat | ~15 g | ~10 g |
Customize Your Portion
The slider selects raw scallop weight only, not the weight of the whole plate. All salad ingredients, dressing, oil, butter and aromatics scale by the same fraction of the assumed 300 g scallop batch. Larger and smaller presets represent 180 g and 120 g scallops; these are illustrative until weighed. The 5:3 split for eight scallops is not the 60:40 nutrition model.
60% of the complete recipe, including salad and fats.
Custom portions scale the original rounded recipe totals (570 kcal, 52 g protein, 35 g carbohydrate and 25 g fat). This is an estimate, not an ingredient-level recalculation. Portions above 300 g scale beyond the original recipe and may need additional batches. All recipe fats are included in that model: 1 tbsp neutral oil, 2 tsp olive oil and 10 g butter. Actual retention varies. Garlic, optional thyme, salt and pepper remain to taste.
Copies your recipe link. Paste it into MyFitnessPal → Import Recipe.
How to Log in MyFitnessPal
- Tap +.
- Select Log Food.
- Open My Recipes.
- Choose Import Recipe and paste the copied link.
- Review the imported ingredients, save the recipe, and log the serving.
MyFitnessPal's ingredient matching and calculated nutrition may differ from these estimates. The import link requires this recipe to be published at the configured slug and the universal Worker to be deployed. Review the assumed scallop weight and flexible ingredient measures before importing.
