I was surprised that my entire potato harvest turned out to be purple, but they were absolutely delicious. Has anyone else experienced this?
They have a unique texture, and I ended up with about 40 pounds of them this year. Not everyone is a fan, though. Lol.
I didn’t have great light where they were planted, so I only got a handful. I thought they had a slightly vanilla flavor—am I imagining things?
I’ve noticed that flavor in ube (purple yam) but never in regular purple potatoes. Just to clarify, ube are yams, not sweet potatoes. Purple sweet potatoes are a different thing altogether.
I think you’re right. I recently had a milkshake made from it at Wendy’s. It was a delicious drink, called something like ‘Witch Drink’ or something similar. Lol.
I didn’t like the texture—it was kind of quarky. I tried making purple mashed potatoes for the kids, but I was the only one who could handle the mouthfeel. Lol
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘quarky.’ Do you mean that they’re gritty in texture?
Yea. It was almost like there was two different textures. I think pithy is a better adjective.
They’re usually waxy potatoes, depending on the variety, which makes them better for boiling or roasting. When mashed, they can get a bit gluey. To get the color without compromising the texture, you could mix one or two with regular starchy potatoes like Idaho.
I really hoped they’d taste like regular potatoes when I tried them, but I was so disappointed. They’re much closer to sweet potatoes
That’s interesting—they tasted like regular potatoes to me, with just a slight hint of vanilla.
It must be different varieties then. I’d love to find some that taste like regular potatoes but have that beautiful purple color for the aesthetic.
I wonder how much the visual color influences the overall experience. I plant about 20 pounds of seed potatoes yearly, usually a mix of three varieties like russets, Pontiac, gold, Kennebec, or blue. Each has its unique texture and starch content, but they aren’t drastically different, except for the blue ones due to their color. Each variety has its best use, whether for fries, baking, mashing, frying, or potato salad. Pontiac stands out the most for being ‘rubbery’ or waxy, but maybe people are used to that. I’ll keep growing blue potatoes if they’re available when I plant. I enjoy the variety.
There are purple sweet potatoes too. Could that be what you ate?