🔗 Share this article

Drawing from a popular New York restaurant, this creative technique converts often-discarded external salad leaves into an velvety green “mayonnaise”. It’s an ingenious approach to minimize kitchen waste while creating a condiment delicious and adaptable.

The Reason Use Outer Salad Leaves?

Those outer greens serve as the plant’s natural wrapping, shielding the tender inner lettuce. Although composting produce trimmings is a basic sustainable practice, finding creative uses for them is additionally impactful. Converting surplus ingredients into rich compost prevents landfill accumulation, where they may emit methane, a potent environmental issue.

This is rather innovative if you think over it: produce rots and becomes the perfect growing medium to nourish more plants, thus closing the loop and respecting the cycle of life.

However, with over 30% extra food getting produced compared to needed, using valuable ingredients efficiently is essential. Minimizing waste not only conserves money but also supports the increasingly eco-friendly lifestyle.

This Herb-Infused Emulsion Recipe

The versatile formula functions with whatever type of salad greens and seeds. Through using a whole egg, one eliminate any hassle to repurpose the leftover egg white. This result is a smooth, rich dressing that works beautifully with salads, roasted veggies, grilled poultry, noodles, or grains.

Serves 2

To Make the Herb Emulsion (Makes about 200g)

• 100 grams butter
• 50 grams outer salad leaves of two little gems, washed and dried
• 20g peeled salted nuts – white nuts such as pine nuts assist keep a bright green, but any seeds will work
• One medium entire egg

For the Side

• Two little gem lettuces, halved longwise
• Cold-pressed olive oil, as needed
• Lemon juice or white-wine vinegar, to taste
• 1 small handful soft greens (such as parsley), leaves left intact, stems thinly chopped

Steps

First making the emulsion. Melt the butter in a small pot, add the outer lettuce greens, place a lid and wilt for about a minute, mixing once or twice, till they have wilted. Pour this mixture into the jug of a stick blender, include the nuts and egg, then blend until smooth. As necessary, add more seeds to achieve a thick consistency. Keep in a sealed jar in the refrigerator for as long as three days.

For prepare the salad, drizzle each lettuce half with oil and lemon juice, then salt generously. Coat with one zigzag pattern of the green mayonnaise, then top with the greens. Place on two plates and serve immediately.