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Drawing from a well-known NYC eatery, the innovative technique transforms often-discarded outer salad leaves into a luxurious herbaceous emulsion. It’s a ingenious approach to minimize leftovers while producing a condiment flavorful and versatile.

Why Use External Lettuce Leaves?

These external greens are nature’s protective packaging, shielding the delicate inside lettuce. While recycling vegetable trimmings is a basic sustainable practice, finding creative uses for these parts is additionally beneficial. Turning excess ingredients into rich soil prevents dump accumulation, where they can emit greenhouse gases, which is a potent environmental concern.

This is quite radical if you think about it: food rots and becomes that ideal growing medium to feed further crops, thus closing this loop and respecting nature’s process of life.

Yet, given over 30% extra food getting produced than required, using valuable resources efficiently becomes crucial. Reducing leftovers not only conserves cash but also promotes a more sustainable way of living.

The Herb-Infused “Mayonnaise” Recipe

The versatile formula functions with whatever type of lettuce and nuts. Through incorporating one whole egg, you avoid the hassle to use up an extra white. The outcome is a creamy, nutty sauce that works beautifully with greens, grilled veggies, grilled chicken, pasta, or grains.

Yields 2

For the Green “Mayonnaise” (Makes approximately 200g)

• 100g unsalted butter
• 50g external lettuce leaves of 2 romaine or butter lettuce, washed and dried
• 20g peeled salted pistachios – white seeds like blanched almonds assist keep a bright green, though whatever seeds will work
• One small entire egg

To Make the Salad

• 2 little gem lettuces, split longwise
• Extra-virgin oil, as needed
• Lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, to taste
• One generous bunch soft herbs (like parsley), leaves left whole, stalks thinly minced

Steps

First making the emulsion. Melt the butter in a small pot, toss in the outer lettuce greens, cover and cook for about a minute, stirring a couple times, till they have wilted. Pour the contents into a container of a stick blender, include the nuts and egg, then blend till creamy. If needed, incorporate extra seeds to get the thick texture. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for as long as 3 days.

To assemble the dish, drizzle each gem portion with oil and lemon juice, then salt liberally. Coat with one tight drizzle of the green emulsion, then scatter with the herbs. Arrange on 2 plates and enjoy immediately.