Cooking With Purple Potatoes

I bought a bag of purple potatoes recently and was inspired to make the following soup recipe. The purple of the potatoes made me think of the lavender herbs I still have in my pantry that I bought at the Portland farmers' market. So since the purple also has the same color of lavender, I thought it'll be an interesting soup to make.

Purple potatoes pop up sometimes in the market, and they're generally pretty small but creamy. (I got it at my local Safeways, and you can find it regularly at this one particular farmer stand at the Ferry Building Farmers Market in San Francisco every Saturday.) I made them into mashed potatoes once and they were a bit thicker than regular potatoes. For this soup, it'll make your soup pretty thick, that's why it's nice to add some creme fraiche or heavy cream to make it more silky. The lavender, as always, is a very subtle flavoring. If your herbs are really fresh, then you don't need much. But if you've had your lavender around for awhile, it may have lost some punch, so add more. This is a fun dish to make if you have a color-themed dinner to make. Enjoy!