Winter sucks and we are lazy. All I ever want is comfort food. Laziness, budgeting and attempts to stave off winter chub prevent me from going out to get macaroni & cheese 5 nights a week. Husband and I discovered this really simple light stew. Generally in our house I'm the ideas man, but he makes it work. Beautifully. A bag of frozen bay scallops is one of the cheapest forms of shellfish-eating, PLUS scallops get high marks from Monterey Bay Aquarium's
Seafood Watch ratings of sustainability. Mollusks are the new vegan, yo.
Idiot-proof, fast, and one serving is about a measly 250 calories.
Stupid Easy Spicy Scallop Stew
Makes 4-5 servings
1 bag of frozen bay scallops ($4-$5 at Aldi)
1 can of diced tomatoes with jalepeno
3/4 cup (about 6 oz) of salsa (We used a half container of Trader Joe's Salsa Verde)
1/2 cup water
1 cup dry rice (we used brown Basmati)
Optional: Thicken it up with a little cornstarch, and add some Old Bay (or any seasoning you like), salt and pepper to taste.
Cook up the rice on the side (usually 1 part rice to two parts water)- you could even do this before if you needed to. If you are uber-lazy, you could buy pre-cooked rice.
Throw everything (tomatoes, salsa, water, seasoning) but the scallops and rice into a pot and heat on medium high until bubbling. Add the scallops and cook at medium heat until they are done, usually only about 5 minutes. If you want the stew to be thicker as it's cooking, this is the time to add a little cornstarch. Keep an eye on it- scallops (even frozen) are little and will cook fast. Overcooked scallops taste like a shoe. Finally, put a couple of ladles worth in a bowl with about a half cup of rice.
Done. Spicy tasty. I don't have a picture because we ate it all, dammit.
