If you already have a favorite potato salad recipe, you can simply substitute purple and/or red potatoes for your regular potatoes. But if you’d like some guidelines on quantities and seasonings, this red and purple potato salad recipe will help you.
We love the delicious simplicity and festive color of this red and purple potato salad recipe. We had homegrown purple majesty potatoes and Norland red potatoes on hand, so that’s what we used. However, you can substitute with whatever potatoes you have available.
Adding the boiled eggs is of course optional, but we like it for the added flavor, protein and color!
Recipe Notes
We use cilantro in this recipe, however, you can omit or substitute with fresh dill is you don’t have (or don’t like) cilantro.
In this red and purple potato salad recipe you have red, purple, yellow, white and green colors all blended together for a festive looking purple potato salad.
Colorful Ingredients
- red (potatoes)
- purple (potatoes)
- red (onion) (or purple onion
- yellow (boiled eggs)
- white (boiled eggs & mayo)
- green (celery, parsley, cilantro)
Once you add the mayo, the colors are still present but naturally become more muted. So if you’re looking for a more decorative presentation, for a special occasion of potluck contribution, here are some garnish ideas to add more color.
Garnish ideas for a More Festive Colors
You can add one or more of any of these toppings for a colorful garnish, lightly sprinkled over the top:
- thinly grated vegetables such as:
- rainbow carrots
- grated beets
- diced or shredded purple potatoes
- paprika
- edible flowers, such as:
- garlic and/or chive blossoms
- nasturtium
- wild violets
Additions
We like to add extra herbs from the garden, so for this we also added chopped garlic chives and onion chives, both of which are optional.
Both of these are great perennial herbs to grow indoors or out and are best added to fresh salads or at the end of the cooking process, such as a sprinkling of toppings. This is especially applicable to the onion chives which have thin tubular membranes that tend to break down when cooked.
As you will see below, if you’re not cooking for a hungry bunch or “planned overs”, then you may want to divide this recipe by two to make a smaller quantity.
Red & Purple Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 pounds purple potatoes scrubbed and cut into bite-sized chunks
- 2 pounds red potatoes scrubbed and cut into bite-sized chunks
- 7 large boiled eggs peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup purple onion diced, or red onion
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup fresh cilantro coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley finely chopped
- 1.5 cups mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 cup dill relish (Optional if you don't care for dill pickles, or you can use less).
Instructions
Cooking the Potatoes
- Steam or boil chopped potatoes until tender, but not mushy, (10-20 minutes)
- While potatoes are cooking, chop the herbs and mix together the dressing.
- When potatoes are tender, remove from stove and remove the steam basket and rinse them with cool water to help stop the cooking and to expedite the cooling. We use the potato water to drink for the nutrients, (plus it's a pleasant warm flavored broth), or use it for soup broth, or pour it on plants. Then finish any mixing of ingredients.
Chop Veggies & Herbs
- Chop onions, celery, garlic, parsley & cilantro and mix together in a separate bowl.
Prepare Mayonnaise Dressing
- In the mixing or serving bowl you plan to use, measure out and blend together the mayo, salt, pepper, dijon, lime juice and minced garlic.
Mix Together All Ingredients
- Add in cooled cooked potatoes and stir all together gently but thoroughly, so as not to mash up any of the potatoes.
- Stir in the chopped veggies and herbs.
- Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Chill a couple hours before serving for best flavor. (Optional)