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Cucumber, Scallop Salad Refreshing On Those Long, Warm Days Of Summer

Charlotte Balcomb Lane Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service

Warm days call for light, cool salads, and Cool Cucumber and Scallop Salad is one of the lightest and most refreshing salads you’ll taste this season.

Tiny, sweet bay scallops about the size of a thimble are the main ingredient. The scallops are poached to tenderness in a microwave oven, then dressed with an elegant concoction of fat-free sour cream, light mayonnaise, dill, cucumbers, celery and petite green peas.

Cool Cucumber and Scallop Salad is a delicious alternative to tuna salad and it is also much lower in fat and calories. Because the dressing is made with fat-free sour cream, a serving has only 163 calories and just 5.1 grams of fat. A serving of mayonnaise-soaked tuna salad has about 380 calories and 19 grams of fat.

The scallops are poached in the microwave oven on medium (50 percent) power in plenty of broth to keep them soft and tender. If scallops cook too quickly, they turn into tough, rubbery little pellets. The poaching liquid of chicken broth and lemon juice acts as a cushion to prevent the shellfish from cooking too quickly.

When you drain the scallops, you’ll be left with a tasty, seafood-flavored broth, which you can reuse to make soup, pasta - or another scallop salad.

Cool Cucumber and Scallop Salad

1 cup low-sodium, nonfat chicken broth

3 tablespoons lemon or lime juice, divided

1 pound bay scallops

1/4 cup nonfat sour cream substitute

2 tablespoons light mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon dried dill or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

Dash of ground hot red pepper

1 cup frozen green peas

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced (about 1 cup)

1 cup diced celery (about 3 small stalks)

In a microwave-safe dish, combine the chicken broth and 2 tablespoons of the lemon or lime juice. Cook the liquid on high heat (100 percent) power until it boils, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the scallops and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Cook on medium (50 percent) power for 3 minutes; stir the scallops and cook for 3 minutes longer. The scallops should be mostly white. Allow the scallops to cool in the broth for 5 to 10 minutes; they will continue cooking as the liquid cools off. Drain the scallops and chill.

(Save the broth and add it later to clam chowder or seafood pasta. It will keep for one week in the refrigerator and up to three months in the freezer.)

Stir together the nonfat sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, dill, white pepper and ground red pepper to make the dressing. Defrost the frozen peas in the microwave for 1 minutes on high (100 percent) power.

In a large bowl, combine the chilled scallops, cucumber, celery, peas and prepared dressing. Stir to combine. Serve over lettuce or in tomato cups.

Yield: 6 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 163 calories, 5 grams fat (28 percent fat calories), 20 grams protein, 10 grams carbohydrate, 40 milligrams cholesterol, 328 milligrams sodium.

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