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Drawing from a well-known New York eatery, this creative technique transforms usually thrown-out external salad greens into a luxurious herbaceous “mayonnaise”. It’s an ingenious approach to minimize food waste while producing a condiment delicious and versatile.

Why Repurpose External Salad Greens?

These external leaves serve as nature’s natural packaging, shielding the delicate inside leaves. While composting produce trimmings is one fundamental zero-waste practice, discovering new applications for these parts is additionally impactful. Turning surplus food into fertile compost prevents dump accumulation, where it may release greenhouse gases, which is a powerful climate concern.

This is rather radical if you think over it: produce decomposes and becomes the perfect growing medium to feed more plants, thus closing the cycle and respecting nature’s cycle of life.

However, given more than thirty percent extra produce getting produced compared to needed, consuming valuable ingredients efficiently becomes essential. Minimizing waste not only saves money but also supports a increasingly sustainable way of living.

This Herb-Infused “Mayonnaise” Method

The adaptable recipe functions with any variety of salad greens and nuts. By using one whole egg, one avoid any need to repurpose the leftover egg white. This outcome is an creamy, rich sauce that works perfectly with salads, roasted veggies, seared poultry, noodles, or grains.

Yields two

To Make the Herb Emulsion (Makes about 200 grams)

• 100 grams butter
• 50g outer lettuce greens of 2 romaine or butter lettuce, rinsed and dried
• 20 grams peeled roasted nuts – light-colored nuts like cashews help keep a bright green, though whatever nuts can do
• 1 small whole egg

To Make the Side

• Two romaine or butter lettuces, halved lengthways
• Cold-pressed olive oil, as needed
• Lemon juice or white-wine vinegar, to taste
• One small bunch soft greens (like chives), leaves picked intact, stems finely chopped

Instructions

Begin by preparing the emulsion. Melt the fat in a small pot, toss in the external lettuce greens, cover and wilt for about a minute, mixing a couple times, till they’ve softened. Transfer this mixture into a jug of a immersion blender, include the pistachios and egg, then process until creamy. If needed, add extra seeds to achieve a thick consistency. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for as long as three days.

To assemble the salad, drizzle each lettuce portion with olive oil and acid, then salt liberally. Coat with one tight drizzle of the green emulsion, then top with the greens. Arrange on 2 plates and enjoy immediately.