Purple Potatoes

This past weekend, Evan and I flew to Michigan to surprise his mom, Jane, for her birthday. It was a whirlwind trip. We flew into Detroit Friday night, drove to Kalkaska on Saturday for dinner and bowling. Then we then woke up on Sunday, drove back to Detroit and flew home. It was well worth it to see Jane’s surprise when she saw her only son had come all the way from Arkansas for her special day.

On our trip Evan’s sister, Jessica (who has worked as an organic Gardner), had some peculiar vegetables at the house and offered me some Purple Potatoes. She told me a special name for them, but I forgot what she called them. I looked up Purple Potato and came back with a few different things, one being Purple Majestic Potato. I am really amazed how all the websites I found had totally different information about this mysterious vegetable. The picture for the Purple Majestic matches what my potatoes looked like, so I guess I will have to believe this site until someone gives me better info. Other sites like this one simply referred to them as Purple Potatoes.

Besides the obvious difference in color, the Purple Potatoes are different from your regular white potatoes because they are packed with antioxidants. This info came directly from my source, Jessica. To my amazement when she cut one open for me, they are a bright purple in the middle unlike red potatoes that are white in the middle and red outside.

I wasn’t sure if I needed to prepare these any differently than I do white or red potatoes, so I just went with my gut. I cut them into small pieces, tossed in some olive oil with some pressed garlic and baked them at 350 on my baking stone for 35 minutes. They turned out with a crisp first bite and soft in the middle. Perfect. In my opinion they taste just like regular white potatoes. This could be because I tasted the oil and garlic that I associate with regular potatoes. I honestly didn’t notice any major difference in sweetness.

I have two Purple Potatoes left. I am going to cut them with a crinkle cutter and bake them like French fries with a little salt. French fries with extra antioxidants! This is a dream come true. Thanks Jess!