Recipe: Seafood and Vegetable with Garlic Pesto Sauce
Happy 2022! Hoping that you’re having a safe and peaceful start to the new year so far. I recently made a recipe that I knew would become a go-to option, and wanted to share it so it can hopefully become a favorite for others too. Since discovering this recipe I have made this dish twice; both times I played around with it to tailor to what was on hand or what I wanted to buy. I will share some of the tweaks made below so that you can decide what might work best for you. This is also just a fun dish to try new or less frequently used ingredients. For example, I don’t often make scallops at home and have never purchased or prepared baby corn for an at home dish, so I enjoyed bringing some new ingredients into a weekly roundup of meals!
Seafood and Vegetables with Garlic Pesto Butter Sauce Yields 2 servings, original recipe and cooking instructions found here Ingredients:
8 oz zucchini (I’ve used both baby zucchini from the original recipe, as well as regular sized zucchini, quartered/sliced into smaller chunks)
4 oz baby corn (If you cannot locate baby corn at the grocery store, I would guess that 4 oz of corn kernels would work just as well)
½ red, yellow or orange bell pepper (the recipe calls for a specific color of pepper however I keep peppers on hand frozen in my fridge so whatever color is available is what gets used)
12 cloves garlic (the recipe calls for roasted garlic, which I did not purchase or make - I simply added the amount of raw garlic)
2 oz lemon butter sauce (I have bought this pre-made from the store. I imagine you could try to recreate your own version at home if you cannot find this at the store - perhaps 2 oz melted butter with some lemon juice and zest?)
1 tsp black pepper and lemon pepper, each (I did not have lemon pepper seasoning on hand so only used black pepper and found it to be very flavorful)
1/4 cup pesto (I buy this pre-made however you could make your own if you would like)
~1 lb fresh or frozen shrimp or scallops (the recipe calls for only scallops. I have made one version with ½ of each and one version with only shrimp; it just depends on your preference and what’s available and affordable for you!)
As you can see from above, this recipe is very versatile, and can be adapted given preferences and what’s accessible to you and your household. Another note is that the dish on it’s own is lacking in the carbohydrate source department. This would be delicious served over pasta or any grain such as rice, couscous, quinoa etc. I have also enjoyed it with a crusty baguette to dip into all of the amazing sauce. Again, modify this to your preferences to ensure that the meal can contain adequate macronutrients (carb, protein, and fat for a refresher) to promote fullness and satiety, as well as all of the wonderful vegetables and sauce to give more color, texture, flavor, and fiber!