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Modeled after a popular New York restaurant, this groundbreaking method converts usually thrown-out external lettuce leaves into an luxurious herbaceous emulsion. This is a smart approach to minimize leftovers while creating a condiment flavorful and versatile.

Why Use Outer Salad Greens?

Those outer greens serve as nature’s natural wrapping, shielding the tender inside leaves. Although composting vegetable scraps is one fundamental zero-waste habit, discovering new applications for these parts is even more impactful. Converting surplus food into rich compost prevents dump accumulation, where it may emit methane, a potent climate concern.

This is quite radical when you consider about it: food decomposes and becomes the perfect soil to nourish more plants, thereby closing the cycle and honoring nature’s process of life.

Yet, with more than thirty percent extra produce getting made than needed, using valuable resources efficiently becomes essential. Reducing leftovers not only conserves money but also promotes a increasingly sustainable way of living.

The Herb-Infused Emulsion Recipe

This versatile recipe functions with any type of salad greens and nuts. Through incorporating a entire egg, you avoid any hassle to repurpose the extra egg white. The result is an creamy, nutty sauce that works beautifully with salads, grilled vegetables, seared poultry, pasta, or rice.

Serves 2

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

• 100g butter
• 50g external lettuce greens of 2 little gems, washed and dried
• 20g peeled salted nuts – white seeds such as blanched almonds help maintain the vivid green, but whatever seeds will do
• 1 medium whole egg

To Make the Salad

• Two little gem lettuces, halved longwise
• Cold-pressed olive oil, to taste
• Lemon juice or white-wine vinegar, to taste
• 1 generous bunch fresh herbs (such as parsley), leaves picked intact, stems finely chopped

Steps

First making the emulsion. Heat the fat in a small saucepan, toss in the outer lettuce greens, place a lid and cook for approximately a minute, mixing once or twice, till they’ve softened. Pour the contents into a container of an stick processor, add the nuts and whole egg, then blend till smooth. If needed, incorporate more seeds to achieve a thick consistency. Store in an sealed container in the fridge for as long as 3 days.

For assemble the dish, sprinkle each lettuce portion with olive oil and lemon juice, then salt liberally. Dress with a zigzag pattern of the herb mayonnaise, then top with the greens. Arrange on 2 dishes and enjoy immediately.