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Drawing from a popular NYC eatery, this innovative method turns typically wasted external salad leaves into an smooth green “mayonnaise”. This is a ingenious approach to minimize kitchen waste while making something delicious and versatile.

Why Use External Salad Greens?

These outer leaves serve as the plant’s protective wrapping, shielding the delicate inner leaves. While recycling vegetable trimmings is a basic zero-waste practice, finding creative uses for them is additionally beneficial. Turning excess ingredients into rich soil avoids landfill buildup, where it may emit methane, a potent climate concern.

This is quite radical when you consider about it: food decomposes and becomes that ideal growing medium to nourish more plants, thereby closing the loop and respecting the cycle of life.

However, given more than 30% extra food being made compared to required, consuming valuable resources wisely becomes essential. Reducing waste not only conserves money but also supports a increasingly sustainable lifestyle.

The Green Emulsion Method

This adaptable recipe functions with any type of salad greens and seeds. By incorporating a whole egg, one eliminate the need to repurpose an leftover egg white. The result is an smooth, nutty dressing that works beautifully with salads, roasted vegetables, grilled chicken, pasta, or grains.

Serves two

To Make the Herb Emulsion (Makes about 200g)

• 100 grams unsalted butter
• 50 grams external salad leaves of two little gems, washed and dried
• 20g shelled salted nuts – light-colored nuts such as pine nuts assist maintain the vivid green, though whatever seeds will do
• One small whole egg

For the Side

• 2 little gem heads, split longwise
• Cold-pressed oil, to taste
• Lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, to taste
• 1 generous handful soft greens (such as chervil), sprigs left intact, stalks thinly chopped

Steps

First preparing the mayonnaise. Heat the fat in one small saucepan, toss in the external salad leaves, place a lid and wilt for about a minute, mixing once or twice, until they’ve softened. Transfer this contents into the jug of an stick processor, include the pistachios and egg, then process until smooth. If needed, add extra nuts to get a mayonnaise-like consistency. Keep in a airtight jar in the refrigerator for as long as 3 days.

For assemble the salad, drizzle each lettuce portion with oil and lemon juice, then salt generously. Coat with one tight drizzle of the herb mayonnaise, then scatter with the herbs. Place on 2 dishes and serve right away.