Warning: This is not your average potato salad. Once you give this incredibly simple recipe a try, you won’t ever return to the store-bought variety. That, my friends, is a promise. If you enjoy boiled potato salad, wait till you try this roasted potato salad! This simple move from [boil to roast] makes for some serious, next-level goodness. This comes from a self-professed potato lover. “Potatoes ALL day, cooked any way!” (must have been my motto- at some point in my life). Half the time they ended up being fries, anyways. 😛

July is also here and so is prime time barbecue season! I always joke in this blog that I “eat with my eyes” and there’s just something about the presentation of your food that makes it super appealing or tempting. The first thing that may have caught your eye is the deep, purple color of this dish. I got a bag of assorted mini potatoes; think white, purple & red varieties. I think when a salad or dish is this colorful, people are far more likely to try it. Even kids, for that matter.

True to the mission of this blog, this roasted potato salad is way healthier than any store bought or most homemade varieties for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s sugar and preservative free. Did you know that store-bought potato salad is loaded with added sugar? Yep, as if potatoes don’t have enough natural sugars in them. Roasting the potatoes also brings out a bit of that caramelized, natural sweetness; pretty much eliminating the need for this step.

Second, I can control the amount of salt and sodium that goes into this dish. I can also avoid canola or other oils and stick to extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil. Thirdly, you can use homemade full fat mayo or avocado oil mayo, which is what I used. There’s amazing store bought varieties of avocado oil mayo and I don’t believe it will be long before I make my own and add it to the list of homemade condiments already living in my fridge.

What do I season this lovely salad with? Some sumac, garlic, sea salt and ground pepper. Just like my grandmother treated her potatoes; with simple, basic spices that allowed for us to taste, well, potatoes. My grandmother loves potatoes more than anything else. She would eat them boiled, stuffed with minced lamb and rice, in fry form and my favorite: she would make the best EVER kettle chips! Read: the BEST homemade kettle chips. I would eat them warm with tahini and ketchup… and then die a very slow death. I was seriously sad when I finished them.

Sumac is a great little addition to this dish. It’s a reddish Middle Eastern spice that’s a bit tangy, but it just gives food the right amount of tartness. Almost like tahini would. By the way, I just had a glorious epiphany… I’ll got to come up with a recipe for that, too! And the question everyone wants answered… Do purple potatoes taste funny? They don’t! Oh and am proud to say these are chives from my herb garden. Because my basil, mint and thyme died. Long live chives! They’re the best with potato salad, anyways!