Upcycling Outer Salad Leaves into Rich Mayonnaise – A Zero-Waste Recipe

Drawing from a well-known NYC restaurant, the groundbreaking method transforms usually thrown-out outer salad leaves into an luxurious herbaceous emulsion. It’s a ingenious way to cut down on kitchen waste while making something flavorful and adaptable.

The Reason Use External Lettuce Leaves?

These external leaves are the plant’s natural packaging, guarding the delicate inner leaves. While composting produce scraps is a basic zero-waste practice, discovering new uses for these parts is additionally beneficial. Converting excess ingredients into fertile compost avoids landfill accumulation, where it can release methane, which is a potent environmental issue.

It’s quite radical when you consider over it: produce rots and becomes the ideal growing medium to feed more plants, thus closing this cycle and respecting nature’s cycle of life.

Yet, given over thirty percent surplus produce getting made than needed, using valuable ingredients wisely is crucial. Minimizing waste not only saves cash but also supports the increasingly sustainable way of living.

This Green “Mayonnaise” Recipe

This versatile recipe functions with any type of lettuce and seeds. By using one whole egg, one eliminate any need to use up an leftover white. The result is a creamy, rich dressing that works perfectly with salads, roasted vegetables, grilled poultry, noodles, or rice.

Yields two

For the Herb “Mayonnaise” (Yields about 200 grams)

• 100g butter
• 50 grams external salad greens from two little gems, rinsed and dried
• 20g peeled salted nuts – white seeds like pine nuts assist keep a vivid color, but whatever seeds can work
• One medium entire egg

For the Side

• 2 little gem heads, split lengthways
• Extra-virgin olive oil, to taste
• Fresh lime juice or apple cider vinegar, as desired
• One generous bunch soft herbs (such as chervil), sprigs picked intact, stems finely minced

Steps

First making the emulsion. Heat the butter in a small pot, toss in the external salad greens, place a lid and cook for approximately a minute, stirring a couple times, until they’ve wilted. Transfer this mixture into a jug of a stick blender, include the nuts and whole egg, then blend until smooth. As necessary, incorporate more seeds to get the mayonnaise-like consistency. Store in an sealed jar in the refrigerator for up to three days.

To assemble the salad, drizzle each lettuce portion with oil and lemon juice, then season liberally. Coat with a zigzag drizzle of the green mayonnaise, then scatter with the greens. Arrange on 2 dishes and enjoy right away.