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Drawing from a popular New York restaurant, the innovative technique turns often-discarded external salad leaves into an luxurious green “mayonnaise”. It’s an ingenious approach to minimize leftovers while making a condiment flavorful and versatile.

The Reason Use External Lettuce Greens?

Those outer greens serve as the plant’s protective wrapping, shielding the delicate inner leaves. While composting vegetable scraps is a fundamental sustainable habit, finding creative applications for them is even more impactful. Converting excess ingredients into rich soil avoids dump accumulation, where they may emit greenhouse gases, which is a potent climate concern.

This is quite radical if you think over it: food decomposes and transforms into that perfect soil to nourish more crops, thus closing the cycle and respecting nature’s cycle of life.

Yet, with over 30% extra food being made compared to needed, consuming valuable ingredients wisely is crucial. Reducing leftovers not only saves money but also supports the more sustainable way of living.

The Green Emulsion Recipe

The versatile recipe functions with any type of salad greens and nuts. Through incorporating a entire egg, you avoid the hassle to use up an leftover white. This outcome is a smooth, nutty dressing that works perfectly with salads, roasted vegetables, seared poultry, noodles, or grains.

Serves two

To Make the Herb “Mayonnaise” (Makes about 200g)

• 100g unsalted butter
• 50g external lettuce leaves from two romaine or butter lettuce, washed and dried
• 20g shelled roasted pistachios – light-colored seeds such as blanched almonds assist keep a bright green, though any nuts will work
• 1 small whole egg

To Make the Salad

• Two little gem heads, halved lengthways
• Extra-virgin oil, to taste
• Lemon juice or white-wine vinegar, as desired
• One small handful fresh greens (like chives), leaves left whole, stems thinly chopped

Steps

First making the mayonnaise. Heat the fat in one small saucepan, toss in the outer lettuce greens, cover and cook for about 60 seconds, stirring a couple times, until they have wilted. Transfer the contents into the jug of a immersion blender, add the pistachios and whole egg, then process till creamy. If needed, add more seeds to get a mayonnaise-like texture. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.

To prepare the dish, drizzle each lettuce portion with olive oil and lemon juice, then salt generously. Dress with one tight drizzle of the herb emulsion, then top with the greens. Place on 2 plates and serve immediately.