🔗 Share this article

Modeled after an acclaimed NYC restaurant, this creative method turns usually thrown-out outer salad greens into a luxurious herbaceous “mayonnaise”. This is a ingenious way to cut down on food waste while making something flavorful and versatile.

Why Repurpose External Salad Leaves?

These outer greens serve as nature’s protective packaging, shielding the delicate inside lettuce. Although recycling produce scraps is a basic sustainable habit, discovering creative applications for them is even more impactful. Turning excess food into fertile compost avoids landfill accumulation, where it can release methane, a powerful climate issue.

It’s quite radical if you think about it: produce decomposes and transforms into that ideal growing medium to nourish more crops, thus closing the cycle and respecting nature’s cycle of life.

Yet, with over thirty percent extra food getting made compared to needed, consuming precious ingredients wisely becomes crucial. Minimizing leftovers not only conserves cash but also supports the increasingly eco-friendly lifestyle.

This Green Emulsion Recipe

This adaptable recipe functions with whatever variety of lettuce and seeds. By using one whole egg, you avoid any need to use up the leftover egg white. The outcome is an smooth, rich dressing that pairs beautifully with salads, roasted veggies, seared poultry, noodles, or rice.

Yields 2

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

• 100 grams unsalted butter
• 50 grams outer salad greens of 2 little gems, rinsed and dried
• 20g peeled salted nuts – light-colored nuts such as pine nuts assist maintain the bright green, but any seeds can work
• 1 medium entire egg

To Make the Salad

• Two little gem heads, halved lengthways
• Extra-virgin oil, to taste
• Lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, to taste
• 1 small handful soft herbs (like chervil), leaves left whole, stems thinly chopped

Instructions

First preparing the emulsion. Melt the fat in one medium saucepan, toss in the outer lettuce leaves, place a lid and wilt for approximately a minute, stirring once or twice, until they’ve wilted. Transfer this contents into the container of an immersion processor, add the nuts and whole egg, then blend till creamy. If needed, add more nuts to achieve the mayonnaise-like consistency. Keep in a sealed jar in the refrigerator for as long as 3 days.

For assemble the dish, drizzle each lettuce half with olive oil and lemon juice, then season liberally. Coat with one tight drizzle of the green mayonnaise, then top with the greens. Place on 2 dishes and enjoy immediately.