Day 206

Purple Potato: During the course of this blog, I can't say I've eaten many different types of potato; actually, this might be the first new one! I've had plenty of Yukon Gold, Russet and red potatoes in my life, and when I saw these unusual purple ones at Your Dekalb Farmers Market the other day, I thought they'd make a great blog entry. I had no idea how these were different from more traditional varieties, but their dark purple skin intrigued me. I was planning on making lamb burgers for dinner sometime this week, so I decided to take home some of these purple oddities to make as a side.

After I found an easy recipe (roasting with olive oil, salt and pepper), I started cutting them into little discs for cooking. I assumed that these would be white on the inside just like red potatoes, but I was surprised to see something completely different - they were a really dark purple hue, not light-colored at all. Each cut I made into the flesh of the potato also left some strange purple juice on my knife, which reminded me of when I first cut into a blood orange a few months back. What were these gonna taste like?

After roasting for about 25 mins. at 400 degrees, I pulled them out of the oven. They had actually turned a bit darker after cooking, and a few of the smaller pieces turned brown and crispy. I waited for them to cool, then popped one in my mouth. Tasty, but not really any different from any other roasted potato I've had. In a blind taste test, I don't think anyone would be able to discern any new flavors going on with these. Oh well, I'm still glad I gave these a shot.

Apparently these purple varieties have the same antioxidant compound that is found in blueberries, which gives them their color. From what I can tell, they aren't supposed to taste different because of that quality. Oh, and according to popular opinion on the internet, they aren't good for making french fries. Good to know.