🔗 Share this article

Drawing from a popular NYC restaurant, the groundbreaking technique turns usually thrown-out external salad greens into a velvety green “mayonnaise”. It’s an ingenious way to reduce kitchen waste while creating a condiment delicious and adaptable.

The Reason Use External Lettuce Leaves?

These external leaves serve as the plant’s protective packaging, shielding the delicate inner lettuce. While recycling vegetable scraps is one fundamental sustainable habit, discovering creative applications for them is even more beneficial. Turning excess ingredients into fertile compost prevents dump buildup, where they may release greenhouse gases, which is a powerful climate concern.

It’s rather radical when you think over it: produce decomposes and transforms into the perfect soil to feed further plants, thus completing the cycle and honoring the cycle of life.

However, given more than thirty percent surplus food being made than needed, using precious resources efficiently is crucial. Minimizing waste not only conserves money but also supports a increasingly eco-friendly lifestyle.

The Herb-Infused “Mayonnaise” Recipe

The adaptable recipe functions with whatever type of salad greens and nuts. Through incorporating a whole egg, one eliminate the hassle to repurpose an leftover white. This result is an smooth, rich sauce that works beautifully with salads, grilled veggies, grilled poultry, noodles, or grains.

Yields 2

For the Green “Mayonnaise” (Yields about 200 grams)

• 100g unsalted butter
• 50g outer salad greens from 2 romaine or butter lettuce, washed and thoroughly dried
• 20g peeled salted nuts – white nuts such as blanched almonds assist maintain the vivid color, though any seeds will work
• One medium whole egg

For the Salad

• 2 little gem lettuces, split longwise
• Cold-pressed oil, as needed
• Lemon juice or white-wine vinegar, to taste
• One generous handful fresh herbs (such as parsley), leaves left whole, stalks finely minced

Steps

Begin by making the mayonnaise. Heat the butter in a small pot, add the outer salad greens, cover and cook for approximately a minute, mixing a couple times, till they have wilted. Pour the contents into a jug of a stick blender, include the nuts and egg, then process until smooth. As necessary, incorporate extra nuts to get the mayonnaise-like texture. Store in a airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

To prepare the dish, drizzle each lettuce half with olive oil and acid, then salt generously. Dress with one zigzag drizzle of the green mayonnaise, then scatter with the herbs. Arrange on two dishes and enjoy right away.