🔗 Share this article

Modeled after a well-known New York eatery, the groundbreaking technique converts often-discarded external lettuce greens into an smooth green “mayonnaise”. It’s an brilliant way to cut down on leftovers while producing something flavorful and versatile.

Why Use Outer Salad Greens?

Those external greens serve as nature’s protective wrapping, guarding the delicate inner lettuce. While composting vegetable scraps is a basic zero-waste practice, finding new applications for them is even more impactful. Turning surplus ingredients into rich soil avoids dump buildup, where they can release methane, a potent climate issue.

This is rather innovative if you consider over it: produce decomposes and transforms into the ideal growing medium to nourish further plants, thus closing the loop and respecting nature’s process of life.

However, given more than 30% extra produce being produced compared to needed, consuming precious resources wisely becomes essential. Minimizing waste not only saves money but also supports the increasingly sustainable way of living.

The Green Emulsion Method

This adaptable formula functions with whatever variety of salad greens and seeds. Through incorporating one whole egg, you avoid any hassle to use up an leftover white. The result is an creamy, rich dressing that pairs beautifully with salads, grilled vegetables, seared chicken, pasta, or rice.

Yields two

To Make the Herb “Mayonnaise” (Makes approximately 200 grams)

• 100g butter
• 50g outer lettuce leaves from 2 romaine or butter lettuce, rinsed and thoroughly dried
• 20 grams shelled roasted nuts – light-colored nuts such as blanched almonds help maintain the bright green, but any seeds will work
• 1 medium entire egg

For the Side

• 2 romaine or butter lettuces, split longwise
• Extra-virgin olive oil, to taste
• Fresh lime juice or apple cider vinegar, as desired
• One small bunch soft greens (like chervil), leaves left whole, stems finely chopped

Steps

Begin by making the mayonnaise. Melt the butter in a medium pot, add the external salad greens, place a lid and cook for about a minute, stirring once or twice, till they’ve softened. Pour this mixture into the jug of a stick processor, include the nuts and whole egg, then process till smooth. If needed, add extra seeds to achieve the mayonnaise-like consistency. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 3 days.

To prepare the salad, sprinkle each lettuce portion with olive oil and lemon juice, then season generously. Coat with one zigzag drizzle of the herb mayonnaise, then scatter with the herbs. Arrange on 2 plates and enjoy immediately.