Purple Party Potato Salad

So tonight, I made my bratwurst with apple-onion-pepper topping for my girlfriend and her mother. Rather than the vinegar pasta from last time, I decided to get a bit more authentic and serve the dish with a hot German potato salad. But regular ol' potato salad isn't very exciting... so I decided to try coming up with my own recipe. I unfortunately lacked the bacon that makes German potato salad so savory, but it tasted good nevertheless.

Well, uh... this probably couldn't look less appetizing. I promise, it's nicer in person.

Ingredients:

  - 2 pounds blue potatoes

  - 1/2 small onion, sliced into thin ribbons

  - 1/3 cup peas

  - 2 hard boiled eggs

  - 1 tbsp butter

  - 1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar

  - 2 tbsp olive oil

  - 1 1/2 tbsp flour

  - 1 tbsp mustard (dijon wouldn't be a bad choice)

  - 1/2 tsp salt

  - 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

  - 1 1/2 tsp ground celery seed

Instructions:

1. Clean the potatoes and boil (with skins on) for about 20 minutes, or until they just begin to split. When done, set them aside to cool for a bit.
2. While the potatoes cook, saute the onions in the butter over medium-low heat until they become translucent. Set the onions and butter aside.
3. Boil or steam the peas for about four minutes and set them aside as well.
4. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, oil, flour, mustard, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Whisk together until they're a nice consistency.
5. Once the potatoes have cooled a bit, slice them with a sharp knife into pieces about 1/4" thick.
6. Combine the potatoes, peas, onions, and liquid mixture in a large bowl. Stir until everything is nicely distributed, but don't over-stir or you'll risk breaking apart the potatoes and creating a mush.
7. Slice the eggs and use them to garnish.

You end up with a potato salad that can best be described as "striking." Thankfully, it's also pretty tasty. I missed out on the hard boiled eggs when I made it - I didn't realize until I was cutting the potatoes that all of my eggs were raw. Alas, such is life. I'll get over it. I would have loved to add ground cayenne pepper, but my dinner guests don't like heat in their food as much as I do. A great area to play with flavor is the mustard. I used a champagne shallot mustard that my girlfriend had sitting around - unlike me, she adores the condiment. She picks up tons of different types. Beer mustard or hot mustard would probably be great, but I wrote dijon in the description because I think most people are more likely to have it on hand. There are tons of spices you could try adding: I've been on a marjoram kick recently, and it would probably work nicely with the sausage I served this with.

Healthwise, it beats out most other potato salads. It doesn't have any of the mayonnaise of more Irish-style potato salads, and the blue potatoes are full of anthocyanin, a fairly potent antioxidant. Having said that, there are plenty of carbohydrates hanging out in this dish

Perhaps I'll do an article soon on what anti-oxidants are and why they're important.

Final Verdict:

Taste: 4/5 (my lovely girlfriend demolished it)

Ease: 3/5

Health: 3.5/5