This was Vrghr's veggie side dish for the Christmas feast.

It is utterly simple to create, with lots of lovely flavor. Robust enough to pair with a strongly flavored entree like the rib roast wuff featured for the meal.

To simplify prep even more, Vrghr used a couple bags of assorted veggies, which included cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots. If you want to save a bit of cash and do a little chopping, you can easily sub in a head of cauliflower, broccoli, and 3 carrots, and slice them up yourself.

Wuffy learned that, when making the lemon aioli, it is important to add the lemon juice after you have created the emulsion with the oil, mustard, and egg. Otherwise, the emulsion never really sets up, and you end up with a sort of thin sauce instead of mayo-like consistency. Tastes okay, but not the results wuff was looking for.

By the way, if you have never created your own home-made aioli/mayo, you're really missing out on a tasty and easy treat! There are nearly infinite varieties of this you can create, each to suit a special taste or use. And to wuff's mind, all of them are vast improvements on a bottle of store-bought mayo (even the good ones!). If you have an immersion blender, you can literally create a pint or so on the spot in just about a minute! If you don't have such a tool, you can still create it with a whisk, but you'll get a bit of a wrist workout, and need about 3 minutes for the same result. Still well worth it, in Vrghr's mind.

NOTE: it is Important to use a neutrally-flavored oil for the base of your Aioli! If you like olive oil flavor, use it as an additional flavor, but keep the foundation as a neutral oil such as grapeseed, safflower, canola, etc. Using all olive oil will create an overpowering flavor, and the amount of mixing needed to create the emulsion will cause the micro-particles in the olive oil to break up and become quite bitter.

Give these a try if you're looking for an easy but tasty side dish, and don't want to put in a lot of effort for a yummy result!

INGREDIENTS:
2 ea 1 lb bags of sliced assorted veggies (carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, snow peas, etc.)
3 TBS Garlic (or Garlic & Herb) flavored Oil
1/2 tsp Seasoned Salt
1/2 tsp ground Black Pepper

For the Aioli
1 egg
1 TBS Dijon Mustard
1 1/2 TBS minced Garlic (OR 1/3 C garlic-flavored oil)
1/2 C Neutral Flavored Oil (grapeseed, rapeseed/canola, safflower, etc.)
~1-2 TBS Lemon Juice
Pinch salt and ground black pepper

Foil for the baking pan (makes clean up easier)
Immersion Blender
Jar or similar vessel for whipping up the aioli

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 425-450 degrees
Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil (makes clean up a lot easier)
Pour the bags of veggies into a large bowl. Drizzle the garlic-flavored oil over top and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Toss in the bowl until all the veggies are evenly coated

Pour the seasoned veggies onto the foil-lined pan and spread out in an even layer. Roast in the oven for about 35-45 minutes, until they are soft and browned around the edges. Remove the pan from the oven and toss the veggies to expose new surfaces around the 25 minute point

For the Aioli
Refer to Vrghr's original recipe for the Bacon Aioli for additional details (found here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16435091/ )

Place the egg, mustard, garlic, and about 1/4 C of the neutral oil into the bottom of a jar or similar vessel just a bit wider than the attachment for your immersion blender. Immerse and start the blender. The ingredients should immediately combine. With the blender running, slowly pour in the remaining oil(s), lifting the blender slowly to follow the rising level. The oil(s) will combine into a thick mayo-like consistency. Adding more oil will increase thickness

Remove the blender and slowly whisk in the lemon juice until the desired flavor is achieved

Plate a portion of the roasted veggies and drizzle decoratively with the garlic-lemon aioli

!DEVOUR!