Cafe Liz

Purple potato salad with lemon and cilantro

Purple food week continues: Tonight I made a light salad out of vitelotte potatoes, with a gentle dressing of olive oil and lemon.

A brief backtrack, for those who haven’t been overwhelmed with purple food photos all week: Eitan and I went to the Tel Aviv port farmer’s market, and came home with an unplanned surplus of vegetables in unusual colors. As I stated a few days ago, I’ll be spending the week figuring out how to use them.

The entire process was very simple. I boiled the potatoes on the stovetop for about 10 minutes, until they became soft. I then pulled them out of the water — they dried almost instantly — and quartered them (they’re so small this creates bite-sized pieces). They were a purplish-blue inside at this point.

I then drizzled them with olive oil and lemon, and was pleased to see that the acidity of the lemon turned the potatoes a brilliant magenta. The olive oil made the potatoes almost buttery.

Finally, I tossed my purplish magenta potatoes with freshly ground black pepper, salt and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro. Then we ate them.

My approximate quantities (for a small side dish for 2):

6-8 vitelotte potatoes (they’re very small)
1/4 lemon, juiced
2-3 t olive oil
1 t chopped fresh cilantro leaves
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes, drain, quarter, and mix with the other ingredients, adjusting to taste.

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