🔗 Share this article

Inspired by a well-known New York eatery, this groundbreaking method transforms typically wasted outer salad greens into an velvety herbaceous “mayonnaise”. It’s a brilliant way to cut down on food waste while producing a condiment delicious and adaptable.

The Reason Repurpose External Salad Greens?

Those external leaves serve as nature’s natural wrapping, guarding the tender inside lettuce. Although recycling produce scraps is one fundamental sustainable habit, finding new applications for these parts is even more beneficial. Converting surplus food into rich compost avoids landfill accumulation, where they can release greenhouse gases, a potent environmental issue.

This is rather innovative if you consider over it: produce rots and becomes the ideal soil to feed further plants, thus closing the loop and honoring nature’s cycle of life.

Yet, with over thirty percent extra food getting produced compared to required, consuming precious resources efficiently is crucial. Reducing leftovers not only conserves money but also supports a increasingly sustainable way of living.

This Green “Mayonnaise” Method

This versatile formula works with any variety of salad greens and nuts. By using a whole egg, you eliminate the hassle to repurpose an extra egg white. This outcome is a smooth, nutty dressing that pairs perfectly with salads, grilled veggies, seared chicken, noodles, or grains.

Yields two

For the Herb “Mayonnaise” (Makes about 200 grams)

• 100g butter
• 50g outer salad greens from two little gems, rinsed and thoroughly dried
• 20g peeled salted nuts – white seeds like blanched almonds help keep a vivid green, though whatever seeds can do
• 1 small entire egg

For the Salad

• Two little gem heads, halved lengthways
• Extra-virgin oil, as needed
• Fresh lime juice or apple cider vinegar, as desired
• One small handful soft herbs (such as chives), sprigs picked intact, stalks thinly minced

Instructions

First preparing the mayonnaise. Melt the fat in a small saucepan, toss in the external lettuce leaves, place a lid and wilt for about a minute, mixing once or twice, till they have wilted. Transfer this mixture into a container of a stick processor, add the pistachios and egg, then blend till smooth. If needed, add more seeds to get a mayonnaise-like consistency. Keep in a sealed jar in the fridge for as long as 3 days.

For prepare the dish, drizzle each lettuce portion with olive oil and acid, then season liberally. Coat with a zigzag pattern of the green mayonnaise, then scatter with the greens. Arrange on 2 dishes and enjoy right away.