🔗 Share this article

Inspired by a popular NYC eatery, this creative technique turns often-discarded external salad greens into a velvety herbaceous emulsion. This is a ingenious way to cut down on food waste while creating a condiment tasty and versatile.

The Reason Repurpose Outer Salad Leaves?

These outer leaves are nature’s protective wrapping, shielding the delicate inner lettuce. Although recycling vegetable scraps is a basic zero-waste practice, finding creative uses for these parts is additionally impactful. Turning surplus food into fertile compost avoids dump buildup, where it can release greenhouse gases, a potent environmental concern.

This is quite innovative when you consider over it: produce decomposes and becomes that ideal growing medium to feed more plants, thereby completing this cycle and honoring nature’s cycle of life.

However, with more than 30% extra produce being made than needed, consuming precious resources efficiently becomes crucial. Minimizing leftovers not only conserves cash but also supports the more eco-friendly way of living.

This Green Emulsion Method

The versatile recipe functions with whatever type of salad greens and seeds. Through using a entire egg, you avoid any hassle to repurpose the leftover egg white. The result is an smooth, nutty dressing that works perfectly with greens, roasted vegetables, grilled poultry, noodles, or grains.

Yields 2

To Make the Herb “Mayonnaise” (Yields about 200g)

• 100g unsalted butter
• 50g external lettuce leaves of two little gems, washed and dried
• 20g shelled salted nuts – white seeds such as pine nuts assist keep the vivid color, but whatever seeds can do
• One medium entire egg

To Make the Side

• 2 little gem heads, halved lengthways
• Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
• Lemon juice or white-wine vinegar, as desired
• One generous bunch soft herbs (like dill), leaves left intact, stems finely chopped

Steps

Begin by preparing the emulsion. Melt the butter in one medium pot, toss in the external salad greens, cover and wilt for approximately a minute, mixing once or twice, till they’ve wilted. Transfer the contents into the jug of an stick processor, include the nuts and egg, then process until creamy. If needed, incorporate extra nuts to get the mayonnaise-like texture. Store in an sealed jar in the fridge for up to 3 days.

For prepare the dish, sprinkle each lettuce portion with oil and acid, then salt liberally. Coat with a zigzag pattern of the herb mayonnaise, then top with the greens. Arrange on two plates and serve right away.