Scallop and bacon salad recipe with croutons and raspberry balsamic dressing

To counter balance all the delicious baking I’ve been doing recently in the bake off bake along, I decided to post a recipe for something that’s lighter and perfect for a summery lunch or starter. I’m not usually the sort of person who would go for a salad in a restuarant, as they seem so simple I could make them myself and I eat a lot of salad at home generally, so I tried to recreate the best salad I’ve ever had prepared for me, one which Adam and I came across at The Pandora Inn on our first anniversary (nawwww…). This particular salad was fantastic as it included two of my favourite ingredients- scallops and raspberries. Combined with crunchy croutons, fresh Florette* salad leaves and crispy bacon, it feels more than just your average salad, but is also potentially a bit more effort and expense than a usual Saturday lunchtime.

Ingredients:

• Two large handfuls of leafy salad, I’ve used Florette, Sweet & Crunchy
• Fresh scallops (you can use frozen but fresh always taste better in my opinion)
• Bacon chopped into small pieces or lardons
• Thinly sliced red pepper, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, spring onions
• Croutons
• Parmesan shavings
• Raspberries, fresh or frozen are fine
• Balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsps white sugar
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Prepare your raspberry balsamic dressing by smushing the raspberries with a spoon in the bottle of a pan. Sprinkle a tsp of so of sugar on top and your balsamic vinegar. Turn the heat on very low just to warm the pan through slightly.
2. Transfer to a sieve to separate the juice and seeds
3. Once cooled, pour the liquid into a clean jam jar, add a glug of olive oil, salt, and pepper and shake vigorously.
4. To make your croutons, slice up cubes of bread, if it’s slightly past its best this can work really well. Cover with a generous amount of salt and pepper , a light drizzle of olive oil and bake in a hot oven until crispy and golden brown. Alternatively you can buy pre-made croutons which are actually pretty good.
5. Fry your chopped bacon pieces or lardons until they are crispy
6. Scoop the bacon out of the pan and place them on a few slices of kitchen towel so that they don’t go soggy as they cool, leaving the bacon fat in the pan
7. Prepare your salad- mix in anything you fancy, thinly sliced red pepper, spring onions, cucumber, cherry tomatoes…etc
8. Sprinkle generously with crispy bacon bits and croutons
9. Now is the big moment to fry up the scallops…the trick is not to overdo them, possibly why I like to buy the freshest scallops I can, but obviously they do need to be properly cooked. To get a lovely crisp top and bottom with a melt in the mouth middle, pat them dry with a paper towel before frying.
10. Using the bacon fat you saved from earlier, get the pan really hot and then carefully place each of your scallops bottom down in the pan using tongs, turning them after approximately 2 minutes and cooking for a further 2 minutes.
11. Add the scallops to your salad, shave some Parmesan over the top and enjoy with a large glass of a crisp white wine.

*This post was sponsored by Florette Salad, which was great as I often buy their salad leaves regardless. To see more from Florette, they have a great selection of recipes for low calorie meals using their range of salads on their website.