Seared Scallops with Coconut Lemongrass Sauce, fresh basil and lime zest. Healthy and delicious, this Thai-inspired dinner is FULL of amazing flavor and easy and quick to make. Totally ok to sub Shrimp for scallops!
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
~Rumi~
The sun peeked out and suddenly it feels like spring here. The temporary illusion gives me a bit of comfort and cheer. I’ll take it! This simple recipe for Seared Scallops with fragrant Lemongrass Coconut Sauce with lime and fresh basil has a similar effect on me. It brightens the spirit with its fragrant aroma and sunny disposition. Fresh lemongrass and lime zest infuse the coconut milk and whenever I get a whiff, I feel uplifted. I am finding it truly is hard to feel somber around a lime.
Serve the seared scallops over rice then spoon the flavorful lemongrass coconut sauce over top, sprinkling with fresh basil ribbons and lime zest. 
It’s an easy healthy recipe that can be adapted — feel free to serve the sauce with chicken, sea bass, prawns, or tofu seared in the same way.
For a little extra burst of sunshine, add kaffir lime leaves to the rice and to the coconut sauce. If you can’t track them down, don’t worry, the recipe works without as well.
Be sure the smash the lemongrass, exposing the flavorful insides. Then simmer it along with the lemon zest in the coconut milk.
Use both the lime zest and the juice.
Give scallops a quick rinse, then pat them dry with paper towels.
Season with salt and pepper and sear for just a few minutes on each side.
Serve them over the rice, in the sauce itself, or plated — with the sauce underneath.
Happy weekend to you.
xoxo
More Recipes you may like:
- Grilled Lemongrass Shrimp
- Grilled Scallops with Tomato Vinaigrette
- Seared Scallops with Spring Peas, Tarragon and Truffle Oil
- Pan-Seared Scallops with Citrus Sauce
- Fast & Easy Seared Tuna (Ahi or Yellowfin Tuna)
Coconut Lemongrass Scallops with Lime
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Stove-top
- Cuisine: Thai
Description
Seared Scallops with Coconut Lemongrass Sauce, fresh basil and lime zest. Healthy and delicious, this easy Thai inspired dinner is FULL of amazing flavor and quick to make. OK to sub Shrimp for scallops!
Ingredients
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 4 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 stalk of fresh lemongrass (about 4–5 inches), smashed
- 2 thin slices ginger (optional)
- 14-ounce can coconut milk (full fat is best here)
- 1 large lime – zest and juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce, plus more to taste
- few slices red chili (optional)
- 1 – 1 1/4 pound large scallops (about 4 ounces per person, or 3–4 large scallops )
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil for searing (or vegetable oil)
- salt and pepper
- 8 leaves of fresh basil – cut into thin ribbons
- Serve with cooked rice and sriracha.
- Kaffir lime leaves (optional) – see notes below
Instructions
- Put a small pot of rice to cook on stove. In a small sauce pan, simmer shallot in vinegar on low heat, until vinegar reduces almost completely, about 5 minutes.
- Add coconut milk, ½ of the lime zest (save the rest for garnish) the smashed lemongrass and the ginger, and simmer gently on medium low heat for 5 minutes. Do not over boil. Stir in 1 ½ teaspoons fish sauce and 1 tablespoon lime juice, turn the heat off and taste. Adjust with more lime or fish sauce if you want. Add a few slices of fresh red chili for heat. Set aside and let flavors infuse while the rice is cooking.
- Gently rinse and pat dry scallops. Season with salt and pepper.
- In a skillet, heat coconut oil over medium heat. When the skillet is hot add the scallops and sear each side 2-3 minutes (depending on the size). When done to your liking, set aside and give a little squeeze of lime. When ready to serve, warm up the sauce just a bit, and strain.
- Assemble the bowls. Divide rice, top with scallops, then spoon the flavorful lemongrass coconut sauce over top, garnishing with fresh basil ribbons and remaining lime zest.
- Enjoy!
Notes
For added heat, serve with sriracha sauce. If you are able find Thai basil, this would work great here. If you have access to kaffir lime leaves, drop a couple in your rice water and the coconut sauce. Kaffir lime leaves can be frozen, and I always try to have some on hand in my freezer. The recipe tastes good without them, so don’t let this stop you if you can’t find any. The recipe is enough for 4 servings, but if cooking for two, cut back on the scallops, but make the same amount of sauce…. as you will want to pour any extra over your rice.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 scallops served with rice
- Calories: 514
- Sugar: 1.2 g
- Sodium: 1190.2 mg
- Fat: 23 g
- Saturated Fat: 19.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 41.6 g
- Fiber: 0.8 g
- Protein: 35.3 g
- Cholesterol: 61.2 mg
We just love this recipe! As a veggie I’ve substituted medallions of tofu with great success. We’re looking for a salad to compliment the dish. The avocado blood orange looks wonderful. Do you think it would be a nice match or do you have other suggestions?
Sounds like a great pairing Maggie! Love that you used tofu too.
The Thai scallop recipe was amazing!! It was better than any restaurant. We used lemongrass paste. I will be making this again and again, also using different fish.
Thank you for such an amazing recipe.
Great to hear Donna!
Thank you again.
Making this tonight! When do I add the shallots?
Sorry for the late reply Donna. Hopefully you found it in the 1st step of the instructions.
Excellent!
Hi,
I’m looking forward to making this evening! I have a couple questions.
How important is the fish sauce to the recipe? Is there a good substitute for the fish sauce if need be?
Thank you!
Hi Wimberly- what about adding a chicken bouillon cube to the sauce? Fish sauce adds salty depth, so you are replacing that “flavor”. Or add more salt or a teeny tiny soy sauce?
Thank you!
Quick wonderfully flavorful family favorite which always feels like a treat. Ingredients are always in the pantry or freezer. We use usually opt for shrimp. Highly recommend this recipe!
Thanks Robin!
I loved this sauce. I wanted something different to do with scallops besides butter and garlic over linguini, and this fits the bill. The only things I will do differently with it the next time is cut back on the lime as I felt I had too much and possibly add a tsp of cornstarch to thicken the sauce a bit. Otherwise will definitely make again and try on other seafood.
Thanks Jon- appreciate the feedback!
How can I make it less sour? Is it the fish sauce or lime that I’m adding?
Hi Lauren- it must have too much lime juice in it? You could try adding a few more dashes of fish sauce?
I am making this recipe today for a dinner party with scallops as first course. I could only find lemongrass paste and don’t know. How much to use? Also can I make a few hous in advance? I can’t wait to try this!,,
Joanne- I would 2-3 tablespoons. 🙂
Really awesome recipe. Very light and so flavorful! I added a teaspoon and a half to the sauce to balance out the acidity. It was yummy! Thank you!
Third recipe I prepare and also excellent. We love to cook with coconut milk, husband is from Sri Lanka… the taste was different, refreshing. Used Shrimp instead. Thanks for sharing, trying the pan-seared halibut with lemony zoodles today, I will use Queen Sea Bass instead. Let you know how it goes.
Thanks Usha! Yes, let me know!
Nice, well-balanced dish
This was a great recipe, and I’m sure I will make this regularly! I even forgot the basil, and it was still so tasty and flavorful. Thank you very much for the great meal!
You are so welcome- Glad you liked this!
Beautiful flavors and so simple! I used lemongrass grown in our garden, (frozen) Kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil grown in our garden. We used prawns and served them over coconut brown rice (with Kaffir lime leaves added) with grilled asparagus. Marinated the prawns in olive oil, lemon juice, s&p. I didn’t use chiles, but I will when I make it again. Thank you for the inspiration. The next time I will use scallops just because I love them and want to change it up for fun and yum factor.
Perfect Kate- thanks!
This was excellent and exactly what I was looking for. Easy to make with lots of flavor. I love ginger so grated the ginger and used about a 2″knob of it. I substituted the white vinegar with rice wine vinegar and used a splash of tamari and ponzu in place of fish sauce.
Is it possible to use dried lemongrass?
That is a great question Jan. To be honest, I’ve never used dried. I think it would be ok, but not 100% sure. If you do try it with dired, will you let me know what you think?
I just tried this with dried… it’s too hard so the meal was somewhat wasted 🙁 but the sauce tasted like PERFECTION and so easy to make. I will make it again and either omit the lemongrass entirely or hunt down fresh.
Oh shoot. Do you mean dried Lemongrass? There’s also lemongrass paste if you can track it down.
I can’t find lemongrass anywhere 🙁
Oh shoot. It really makes the sauce. Sometimes you can find lemongrass paste in a tube, in the refrigerated section of the grocery store by the fresh herbs. Try there?
Yum! Easy and delicious. I added a lot more lime, fish sauce and chilli to the recipe. Next time I will add the chilli earlier.
Hi Sylvia,
I have a lot of 16-20 shrimp I need to cook. Could I substitute them in place of the scallops (as much as I love scallops)? The sauce sounds amazing and it seems like it should work with shrimp. Thanks!
Absolutely!!!
Hi Sylvia,
It turned out great with the shrimp! I just need to know how you zested you lime to get those cool long lime zest strips. Will you share your secret? Thank you for such great recipes. I have loved everyone that I have made.
Thanks Cynthia! Im glad it turned out! I use a zyliss esay grip zester for the lemon zest. 🙂
I’m going to get me one of those! Thank you!
Wow!! This looks so delicious!! I have never cooked with lemongrass and am excited to give this a shot.
Well you are in for a treat. Lemongrass is the best!
Just run into your blog today, amazing recipes. Thanks for sharing all these, I try to cook it at home!
Thanks Lea!!
I just made this. Lately, no matter how good the food, i am bored with it by the time I dish it up. This recipe was the exception….felt like I was eating restaurant food even after sweating it out cooking! Absolutely delish. This is now my go-to blog for cooking. Really like your international flavourings. Looking forward to working my way through your archives. I aspire to your lovely platings!
Thanks so much Kate, glad you enjoyed this!!!
oh… i think this is asian food right. i alway love asian food especially Chinese food and Viet Nam food.
Thanks for this recipe.
ooh, these scallops are gorgeous! lemongrass goes with seafood and coconut milk so well. I always think it smells like froot loops cereal – ha!
Sylvia, I really love your site. You have the most amazing recipes. They are always so beautifully presented, you really must be proud.
Hope you are having/or had a happy weekend.
Thanks – you are so sweet. Really appreciate the feedback…. and your site is lovely!
Thank you Sylvia 🙂 . I have a long way to go, to get a site even half as good as yours, but thanks again, I appreciate your kindness.
Wow – love scallops and have been wanting to experiment with lemongrass more (so much to learn)! Thanks Sylvia!! Have a lovely Sunday. Heather
Happy Sunday Heather! Thanks… enjoy!