Types Of Purple Potatoes (With Photos!)

Purple potatoes are incredibly high in anthocyanin and great for incorporating into your diet. In this detailed guide, we’ll explain why they’re so healthy and suggest different types of purple potatoes to try!

Why are Purple Potatoes Purple?

Like other purple and blue fruits and vegetables, purple potatoes get their distinct color because they contain anthocyanins. These are the compounds that give them their unique and aesthetic purple hue, but it isn’t just a pigment!

Anthocyanins are nutritious antioxidants that give purple and blue potatoes a nutritional boost over their yellow and white cousins.

What do purple potatoes taste like?

Purple potatoes tend to have an earthier flavor than more neutral tasting white potatoes. It isn’t, of course, that simple. When we discuss uses for potatoes further in the article we will discuss classifications by waxy vs starchy potatoes, and the effect this has on taste, texture, and use. A potato’s classification and variety have a bigger influence on its taste than does its color.

Origin of Purple Potatoes

Purple potatoes originated in the Andes of South America probably over 7,000 years ago in what is now Peru and Bolivia.

When Europeans “discovered” the new world, they brought all manner of potatoes back to Europe, where they soon became a staple crop. They came back across the Atlantic to North America with European colonists and became an important crop in the USA as well. They have gotten a lot of recent attention as the power of their anti-inflammatory anthocyanins came to light. 

Varieties of Purple Potatoes

There are over 5,000 potato varieties worldwide, and something like 100 varieties of these are purple and blue. We will cover five of the most common, popular, and importantly available purple potatoes and purple sweet potatoes.

ALL BLUE POTATOES

All Blue Potatoes are, as their name suggests, blue or purple inside and out. They are an all-purpose potato but lean toward the starchy side and are thus recognized as good for baking. If you want to be sure to keep their unique color, boil or bake them. The advantage to boiling is the water will turn blue and can be used as a mild dye for Easter eggs or cloth. This is a kid-friendly spud!

PURPLE MAJESTY POTATOES

Purple majesty potatoes have wonderfully dark purple skins and flesh. They are considered all-purpose potatoes, so use these in any recipe that you want to leverage that wonderful color. They were developed at the Colorado State University not just to be stunning, but multi-use like the best all-purpose potatoes. The drawback to these spuds is that they don’t last as long stored in your pantry as others, so keep an eye on them.

PURPLE PERUVIAN POTATOES

These are a starchy fingerling variety. They have a purple skin and blue to purple flesh with the customary slim fingerling potato shape. Most fingerlings are waxy spuds, but not the Peruvian purples which are great mashed, baked, fried, or in chips. Use these when you want a starchy potato (baked, mashed, fried), but also want a unique blue presentation.

STOKES PURPLE SWEET POTATO

The Stokes Purple is a sweet potato with brown-purple skin and purple flesh. They were developed in Stokes County NC thus their name. The Stokes is not as sweet as most orange fleshed sweet potatoes, but is an all-purpose moderately starchy and moist variety. They are good roasted, steamed, or baked and of course their purple color is unusual for a sweet potato. If you want to leverage the purple flesh for an unusual and decadent treat, use them in this Sweet Potato Smoothie recipe.

VITELOTTE POTATO

The Vitelotte is a very old waxy potato brought to Europe from Peru hundreds of years ago. They are cultivated mostly in France and the United Kingdom, but you can find them at specialty markets in the USA. They are small potatoes with a dark purple skin and flesh. They maintain their color when cooked making them good for uses in which you want to showcase their color. 

How to Cook Purple Potatoes

The primary thing to keep in mind is that you can cook purple or blue potatoes in all the same ways you cook white or yellow potatoes. The key is how to cook them to best show off their delightful color! 

Before we look at cooking methods it is important to review the three classifications of potatoes. Starchy and waxy potatoes have different superpowers, and it is important to use the right type for your recipe.

• Starchy Potatoes: Having more starch, they tend to be dry, fluffy, and absorbent (hello butter!) These are the best options for baking, frying, and french fries. The dry flesh makes them crumble easily and thus ideal as baked potatoes. The starch absorbs oil making them great for frying. They are the best for french fries because the interior of the fries stays fluffy during cooking while the exterior becomes crispy. Purple varieties include the Purple Peruvian and Stokes potatoes.
• Waxy Potatoes: These have very little starch and moist flesh. They generally have thinner skin, hold their shape well, and don’t crumble when cooked like their starchy cousins. Waxy potatoes are the best bet for use in soups, salads, casseroles, and layered dishes like scalloped potatoes. The Vitelotte purple potato is a waxy potato.
• All-Purpose Potatoes: These are somewhere between starchy and waxy. Purple varieties include All Blue and Purple Majesty potatoes.

Purple Potato Recipes

Purple Potato Recipes

If you are looking for purple potato recipes, you generally have to search no further than your favorite recipes for white potatoes. Here are some suggestions:

Baked Purple Potatoes: This is a great option for the starchy potato varieties like purple Peruvian. When you cut them open, the purple hue will remain largely intact and make a wonderful contrast with sour cream.

Purple Potatoes Roasted in the Air Fryer: They will really show off their color if you coin or cube them before adding a light coating of olive oil and roasting them in the air fryer. This method is also much faster than roasting in the oven.

Mashed Purple Potatoes: Mash or whip them like you would any other potato. Some of your guests may not think the purple hue is all that charming in such a culinary icon as mashed potatoes, but we bet the kids will love them!

Purple Sweet Potato Noodles: Okay, work with us here, but sweet potatoes can be used as a delicious and super-healthy faux pasta in this Sweet Potato Fettuccine recipe. They are much healthier than conventional pasta, with about half the calories and a lot more nutrients. This is a good option for the Stokes sweet potato to make some really uniquely colored noodles.

Purple Potato Fries: Use either waxy purple potatoes like vitelotte or purple sweet potatoes for baked sweet potato fries.

Casseroles: You can use waxy purple potatoes, like the vitelotte, in pretty much any recipe calling for yellow or white potatoes, including casseroles and au gratin recipes. There is also no reason you can’t use purple sweet potatoes in your traditional Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole, well, except for Uncle George’s grumbling.

This concludes our deep dive into types of purple potatoes and purple sweet potatoes. We hope you found the information you can use here, and as always, happy eating!