Purple Potato Salad

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I love a good potato salad. Always, anytime. My most memorable (though what I replicated isn't it) is how Bengalis prepare a potato salad.

During Eid my grandmother served up a peculiar cold mashed potato to visitors. Yes, imagine. Coldish. The potatoes were dressed in mustard oil, mustard seeds and topped with chopped onions, coriander, green chillies and freshly grated ginger. What a versatile staple.

I won't forget all the times my mother prepared a hearty potato salad for our family picnics, the ones I would like to forget are the ones drowning in cream and frozen peas and carrots. What one needs to acknowledge is that a potato carries its own muscle memory of flavor, all we really need to be doing is allowing our dressing to merely 'kiss' them.

Potatoes (any kind, no discrimination)

Herbs (I used dill, chives, parsley, coriander, mint and basil)

Lemon or lime juice

Olive oil

Pantry spices and condiments (I used zaatar, shatta (chilli paste), cumin, salt, pepper, pesto)

Optional protein (I used lentils and ricotta cheese)

Option crunch (I used pine nuts)

1. Boil potatoes and lentils in stock,
2. Chop all your herbs. Chop. Chop till they bleed. Chop till they stain your chopping board.
3. Add herbs to a bowl and mix in olive oil, lemon juice, spices and condiments.
4. Once potatoes and lentils are tender run under cool water- which also helps perk up the color of the purple potatoes.
5. Add into dressing and carefully mix.
6. Refrigerate.
7. Add further salt, olive oil and ricotta cheese.
8. Serve to your loved ones.