Scallops with Tomato Ginger Sauce

(picture coming soon)

This is a delicious recipe! It is easy enough to make for lunch and fancy enough for a formal dinner party. I've made a similar version of the Tomato Ginger Sauce for salmon for years. I originally got the recipe from my grandmother, Jean Darling. She always made her salmon with tomatoes and ginger.

I've been eating a lot of scallops because they are low in calories/points* and taste so rich and filling. This recipe serves four. But I usually make one batch of the sauce and keep it in the fridge. Then whenever I'm hungry, I just cook 4 ounces of scallops for a quick lunch or dinner and warm up 1/3 cup of the sauce. It takes only about 5-10 minutes to make the sauce because it doesn't need to cook very long. The longest time will be taken mincing the ginger and chopping the tomatoes. The sauce will keep in the fridge up to a week and probably freezes well too. (I've never had to freeze it because we've never had any leftover before!)

Fiddle Version of Scallops with Tomato Ginger Sauce

Serves 3 1/3 cup serving of sauce

for the sauce:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced (1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic)

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root,

2 cups tomatoes, chopped (you can use small grape tomatoes or vine-ripened. I often use the sweet little grape tomatoes)

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

1/4 cup orange juice

For the scallops:

12 ounces of diver scallops

1 teaspoon olive oil

kosher salt or sea salt

Make the sauce: in a large frying pan saute the garlic in olive oil for 1 minute over medium heat. (Be careful not to let the garlic get dark brown or burn because burnt garlic will make the entire sauce bitter.)

Add minced ginger and cook for one minute more.

Add tomatoes, sugar, salt and red pepper flakes and cook for 3-5 minutes until tomatoes are soft. Add orange juice and soy sauce and cook for another 2 minutes.

Make the scallops: season scallops with kosher salt. Get frying pan hot and put a teaspoon of olive oil or olive oil spray. Sear scallops and cook until brown on each side.

Transfer to a plate and cover with 1/3 cup of the sauce. Scallops are 2.5 points and sauce is 1 point. You can serve it with a 1/2 cup of rice for another 2 points. Wonderful!

*The Points® values for these products and/or recipes were calculated by Maili and are not an endorsement or approval of the product, recipe or its manufacturer or developer by Weight Watchers International, Inc., the owner of the Points® registered trademark.