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Drawing from a popular New York eatery, the creative technique converts often-discarded external salad greens into a smooth herbaceous emulsion. It’s an brilliant way to cut down on kitchen waste while producing a condiment flavorful and versatile.

Why Use Outer Lettuce Greens?

Those outer greens serve as the plant’s protective packaging, guarding the delicate inside leaves. Although composting vegetable scraps is a basic sustainable practice, discovering new applications for these parts is additionally impactful. Turning excess ingredients into rich compost avoids landfill accumulation, where they may emit methane, which is a potent environmental issue.

This is rather innovative when you think about it: food rots and becomes the ideal growing medium to feed further crops, thereby closing the cycle and respecting nature’s cycle of life.

Yet, given over 30% extra food being made than needed, using valuable ingredients wisely becomes essential. Reducing leftovers not only conserves cash but also promotes the increasingly sustainable lifestyle.

This Green “Mayonnaise” Method

The adaptable formula works with any variety of lettuce and seeds. Through incorporating one whole egg, one avoid the hassle to repurpose the leftover egg white. The result is an creamy, rich dressing that works beautifully with greens, grilled vegetables, grilled chicken, pasta, or rice.

Yields two

For the Herb Emulsion (Yields about 200g)

• 100 grams butter
• 50 grams external salad leaves of two romaine or butter lettuce, washed and thoroughly dried
• 20g shelled salted nuts – light-colored nuts such as blanched almonds help maintain a bright color, though whatever nuts can do
• One small entire egg

To Make the Side

• Two romaine or butter heads, split longwise
• Cold-pressed olive oil, as needed
• Lemon juice or white-wine vinegar, as desired
• One small handful fresh greens (such as dill), leaves picked whole, stalks finely minced

Steps

Begin by making the mayonnaise. Heat the fat in a medium pot, toss in the outer salad greens, place a lid and wilt for about a minute, mixing a couple times, till they have wilted. Pour this mixture into a jug of a immersion processor, add the pistachios and egg, then blend till creamy. As necessary, add more nuts to get a thick texture. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for as long as three days.

To assemble the salad, sprinkle each gem half with olive oil and lemon juice, then season liberally. Dress with one tight pattern of the green emulsion, then scatter with the herbs. Arrange on two dishes and serve immediately.