Wegmans Lo Mein Salad with Peanut Sauce

Making Asian-inspired food at home is a lot easier than you think and today, I´m gonna show you how to make a very quick Lo Mein and peanut sauce salad. I´m gonna pair it with some simply pan-seared scallops and I´m gonna have dinner on the table real quick. This is a great weeknight recipe. We´re gonna get started. I have some Lo Mein noodles that were thawed and I put them in a microwave safe bowl, covered it and put it in the microwave for about three minutes. And they´re perfectly cooked. I just want to go ahead and give those a quick stir. Okay, make sure the noodles are separated and those look perfect. These need to cool a little bit before I dress them so I´m gonna get going on the scallops. Now I have a pan here. I´m gonna take just a little bit of olive oil and I´m gonna preheat this pan on medium high. I´m gonna season up my scallops with some Pan Searing Flour. Just a light dusting right on the top. Just do a little crack of pepper. And I like just a little extra salt on my scallops, obviously that´s up to you but I like just a little bit. `Cause the idea here for scallops particularly, I cook them mostly on one side. Get them really, really crispy. Almost get like a salt and pepper crust on the side that you´re searing. I like that an awful lot. So I´ve got the oil in my pan, just want to give it a twirl. And my scallop´s gonna go right in, just like that. And again, because I want these to cook mostly on that one side, now I´m just gonna let the pan do the work, get that nice crust developed on there. And while those are cooking, we´ll go ahead and we´ll toss the salad together. Very, very simple. I have some black sesame seeds. They had a nice crunch. I have some chopped green onions, scallions. I´m using only the green parts for this recipe. It´s almost like a little herb note that you´re gonna get. And I have some shelled soy beans. It´s about half a bag of edamame. They´re delicious, very, very good for you. Very nutritious. And what I have here, really convenient. Little bit of Asian slaw. It´s got some cabbage, and some carrot, Napa cabbage, which is a little bit sweeter than your traditional cabbage. And that´s just gonna go right in the bowl, as well. Put everything together and that´s why this is easy and what I really like about this too is it´s a great make-ahead. This is something you can eat at room temperature. You can also eat it when it´s cold. Keep it in the fridge so it´s great for lunch, for leftovers. I´ve got about three-quarters of a cup of Thai peanut sauce here. This is already made, ready to go in a bottle. You know, certainly it has peanut butter in it. It´s also got Galangal, it´s got some real good acidity to it. So it´s not as rich as you would think but it´s got big, big flavor and I´m just gonna go ahead and toss all this stuff together. And then we´ll let it sit. And again, because the noodles are slightly warm still, they´re really gonna absorb that dressing. And this isn´t something that you´re gonna wanna look to be like a pasta would be like covered in red sauce. This is something that you´re looking for a real light dressing, almost like a summer pasta salad. This is also a great summer salad. I make this all year round. You know, kids like it. It´s kind of got that spaghetti thing going on. Kids usually like peanut butter. It´s a little sweet and it´s got some nice crunch in there. Even though the soy beans are green, kids seem to like them a little bit better. A lot like peas. Alright, so we give that a nice toss. We´ll let that sit. We´re gonna go back and check on our scallops. Get a clean pair of tongs here. And again, this is what I´m looking for. See that beautiful, really almost mahogany crust on the outside. That´s what I really like for my scallops. It´s a real nice textural difference. The scallop is so soft and sweet and then you get this nice crust on top. That´s exactly what I want. So I´m gonna move these all down this way. Now I´m gonna go ahead and finish the cooking process. I´m just gonna add some Basting Oil and turn my pan down to medium. Scallops cook very, very quick, too. So I´m gonna add my Basting Oil so I get a little garlic and a little herb in there and I´ll just take a teaspoon of butter and pop that right in there too just to add a little bit of richness. Again, these scallops are so sweet, a little richness helps. And we´ll get that from the salad, as well. And now I´m just gonna baste them. What this basting does too is it sort of deglazes the pan. You get some caramelized bits no matter what you´re pan searing. Again, could be chicken, piece of fish, a pork chop. But you get some caramelized protein on the bottom of the pan called fond. It´s got great flavor so when this butter melts, it steams and it´s just gonna go ahead and lift all those beautiful flavors right off the bottom of the pan. Alright. Those are beautiful. Now I´m just gonna check real quick. Looking for 130 degrees so obviously I´m gonna get the larger scallop. Just want to go right into the center. Yeah, that´s great. Perfect, okay. So right in the center, we´re there. I need to let them rest for just a couple of minutes, let that carry over cooking finish the job for us. I´ll just move `em to a clean plate here. Alright, and while those are resting, I´ll just take this big square plate. Again, what a great weeknight dinner this is. Simple, you know, again you could have this salad made the day before, it´s fine cold. I don´t mind a cold salad with a warm protein. Again, it´s that sort of contrast of temperatures is a lot like a contrast of flavors. So you´ve got a warm protein, nice, cold, flavorful salad. Get some of those vegetables, those soybeans right in the center of the plate. Beautiful, alright? Just put your scallops all around the outside. That looks like it took me a lot longer to make than it did. You saw it in actual time. I might even drizzle a little more peanut sauce on top just for extra sauce. Simple Lo Mein salad with Thai peanut sauce, pan-seared scallops tonight. Pan-sear any protein you want with it, you have dinner on the table real fast. You gotta try it at home.