Recipe: Roasted purple potatoes with Provencal herbs
Unlike some purple vegetables, these potatoes retain their color when roasted. Debbie Arrington
Lavender flowers are part of the distinctive mixture that makes up Herbs de Provence, which also includes rosemary, marjoram, thyme, savory and other herbs native to southern France. Combined with garlic salt and coarse ground black pepper, this herb mix is a flavorful complement to roast potatoes – no matter the color.
Purple potatoes taste much like their white- or yellow-fleshed cousins (their flavor and texture are usually compared to russets). They tend to cook a little faster and don’t need peeling. They can be substituted into almost any recipe that calls for a starchy potato.
The main difference: Antioxidants. Purple potatoes have about three times the antioxidants of a white-fleshed potato.
Purple potatoes get their distinctive hue from anthocyanin, the same compound found in blueberries. Half a baked purple potato has just as much of this antioxidant as a half cup of blueberries.
Unlike some colorful veggies, purple potatoes retain their rich color when cooked, which makes them a fun food to try. (Purple fries, anyone?)
Try these roasted purple potatoes as a side dish to grilled or roast meat, fish or chicken.
Provencal purple potatoes
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
1 pound purple potatoes, washed and eyes removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
1 teaspoon garlic salt
½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
½ cup chopped onion
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Line a sheet pan with foil. Set aside.
Depending on size, cut purple potatoes into wedges or quarters.
In a large bowl, mix olive oil, herbs, garlic salt and pepper. Toss potatoes in herb mixture to coat and spread potatoes in foil-lined pan. Toss chopped onion in bowl with remaining oil and herbs, then add the onions to the potatoes in the sheet pan.
Bake in a 400-degree oven until the potatoes are fork tender, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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