Purple Mashed Potatoes

Want to make mashed potatoes more special for the holidays? Use local purple mashed potatoes from PrairiErth Farm! It makes pretty lavender-colored mashed potatoes. Leave the skins on and boil the potatoes whole to keep more of the color.

Some of the purple color inevitably lessens when cooked and when crema is added.Most purple potatoes are super radiant in color when they are raw but when you cook them they lose a lot of their pigment. One of the tricks that I do is pick out purple potatoes from our bulk produce section and pick the darkest blue potatoes. Many times they are the smaller potatoes and tend to have a sharper blue color. The larger the blue potato is, sometimes the less pigmented blue coloring. When you add the white cream, it definitely makes the purple a lighter lavender color. It's still pretty though and totally worth it.

Buy local potatoes.

They are more flavorful, have a better texture, and taste less dry in comparison to a russet. I particularly look for PrairiErth, Blue Moon, and Miller potatoes when I am shopping. If you ever see Carola potatoes, grab them because they have pink tie dye coloring inside. The standard yellow and red potatoes are usually smaller than typical commercial potatoes but they are tastier, make your dishes that much better, and you have a story to tell about the source of your potatoes since they are grown by your neighborhood farmers.