🔗 Share this article

Modeled after a popular New York eatery, the innovative technique turns usually thrown-out outer salad leaves into a velvety herbaceous “mayonnaise”. This is a ingenious approach to minimize leftovers while creating a condiment delicious and versatile.

Why Use External Salad Greens?

Those external greens serve as the plant’s natural wrapping, guarding the tender inner leaves. Although recycling produce trimmings is one basic sustainable habit, finding new applications for them is additionally impactful. Turning excess food into rich compost prevents landfill buildup, where it may release greenhouse gases, which is a powerful environmental concern.

This is quite innovative when you think over it: produce rots and becomes the ideal soil to nourish more plants, thus completing the cycle and respecting nature’s cycle of life.

Yet, given more than 30% extra produce getting made than required, consuming valuable ingredients efficiently becomes crucial. Reducing waste not only saves money but also promotes the increasingly eco-friendly lifestyle.

The Herb-Infused “Mayonnaise” Recipe

The versatile recipe works with whatever variety of lettuce and nuts. Through using one whole egg, one eliminate any need to use up the leftover egg white. This result is an creamy, nutty dressing that pairs beautifully with salads, grilled vegetables, seared poultry, noodles, or rice.

Yields 2

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

• 100 grams butter
• 50g outer lettuce leaves from two little gems, rinsed and thoroughly dried
• 20 grams shelled roasted pistachios – light-colored nuts such as blanched almonds help keep the vivid color, but whatever seeds will work
• 1 medium entire egg

For the Side

• 2 little gem heads, halved lengthways
• Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
• Lemon juice or white-wine vinegar, to taste
• 1 small bunch fresh greens (such as dill), sprigs picked whole, stems finely minced

Steps

Begin by making the mayonnaise. Heat the fat in one small pot, toss in the outer salad leaves, cover and cook for approximately a minute, mixing once or twice, till they have wilted. Pour this mixture into a container of an stick processor, include the pistachios and whole egg, then process until creamy. If needed, add more seeds to get a thick consistency. Store in an sealed container in the fridge for as long as 3 days.

To assemble the dish, sprinkle each lettuce portion with olive oil and acid, then salt generously. Dress with one zigzag pattern of the herb emulsion, then scatter with the herbs. Place on two plates and enjoy right away.