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Drawing from a popular New York eatery, the groundbreaking method turns often-discarded external lettuce leaves into an smooth green “mayonnaise”. This is an smart way to minimize food waste while producing something flavorful and adaptable.

The Reason Use Outer Lettuce Leaves?

These outer leaves serve as the plant’s protective packaging, shielding the tender inside leaves. While composting vegetable scraps is one fundamental sustainable habit, discovering new applications for them is even more impactful. Converting surplus ingredients into fertile soil avoids landfill buildup, where it may release methane, which is a powerful climate concern.

It’s quite innovative when you consider over it: food rots and becomes the ideal soil to nourish more plants, thereby completing this cycle and respecting nature’s cycle of life.

However, given more than 30% extra food being produced compared to needed, using precious ingredients wisely becomes crucial. Reducing leftovers not only saves cash but also promotes a increasingly sustainable lifestyle.

The Green “Mayonnaise” Recipe

The adaptable recipe functions with any variety of lettuce and seeds. Through incorporating a whole egg, one eliminate any hassle to use up the extra egg white. This outcome is an creamy, nutty dressing that works beautifully with salads, roasted veggies, grilled poultry, pasta, or grains.

Yields 2

For the Herb Emulsion (Makes approximately 200g)

• 100g unsalted butter
• 50 grams external salad greens of two little gems, washed and thoroughly dried
• 20 grams peeled roasted pistachios – white seeds such as cashews help maintain a bright color, but whatever seeds can do
• One small entire egg

To Make the Salad

• Two romaine or butter lettuces, split lengthways
• Extra-virgin oil, as needed
• Lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, as desired
• 1 generous bunch soft herbs (like dill), leaves left whole, stems thinly minced

Steps

First preparing the emulsion. Melt the fat in one medium saucepan, toss in the outer lettuce greens, place a lid and wilt for approximately 60 seconds, stirring once or twice, until they have softened. Pour the mixture into a jug of an immersion blender, include the nuts and whole egg, then blend until smooth. If needed, add extra seeds to get a mayonnaise-like consistency. Store in an sealed jar in the fridge for up to three days.

For prepare the dish, sprinkle each gem half with oil and lemon juice, then salt liberally. Dress with a zigzag drizzle of the herb emulsion, then scatter with the greens. Place on 2 plates and serve immediately.