Blue Cheese & Bacon Purple Potatoes

Ever since I mentioned that I was making these Blue Cheese and Bacon Purple Potatoes for my NYE party, I’ve had people asking me when I was going to post the recipe. Well, the wait is over, here it is!

I cannot take full credit for coming up with these cute little party bites, my good friend Melissa brought a version of them to another friend’s birthday shindig a few months ago. Her blue cheese purple potatoes (sans bacon) were quickly gobbled up by everyone in attendance, so I’d been looking forward to the day when I’d have a reason to make them myself.

Melissa is a very talented cook, and like me, she often just throws stuff together without measuring. That was the case with these. So although she gave me some basic instructions and an ingredient list, I had to come up with appropriate measurements. I think they turned out perfect, and from the reactions of most of my guests, I think they thought so too!

Blue Cheese and Bacon Purple Potatoes

Yield: 24 appetizer portions.

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

12 purple potatoes (as similar in size as possible, and not too big; think bite size)

1/4 cup sour cream

2 Tbsp milk

3-4 oz strong blue cheese*, crumbled

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2 Tbsp chives, chopped

1/2 tsp pepper, separated

1 tsp salt, separated

4 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled

olive oil

*I used Echo Mountain Blue from The Bloomy Rind

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Coat whole potatoes with olive oil, 1/4 tsp of pepper, and 1/2 tsp of salt. (I put the potatoes in a large container with lid, pour olive oil, salt and pepper over them, then replace lid and shake so they are all thoroughly coated.)

Place whole potatoes on a shallow jelly roll pan; roast for 40 minutes. Take out of oven and turn down to 350 degrees. The potatoes should be slightly shriveled and soft when you squeeze them. They will also be very hot, so let them cool for a few minutes, but not too long because you want the insides to be easy to work with.

Start with one potato. Cut it lengthwise and then use a melon baller to hollow out the insides of both halves, leaving the skins as intact as possible. Put the insides into a mixing bowl and place skins back onto the jelly roll pan. Continue this process until you've hollowed out all of the potatoes. (I suggest cutting and hollowing out one potato at a time rather than cutting them all at once and then hollowing them out because as they cool, they get harder to work with)

Once you have all of the potato insides in your mixing bowl, add the sour cream and milk. Mash into a workable consistency. Add blue cheese crumbles, mozzarella, bacon, and the remaining 1/4 tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp of salt. Mix a little, then stir in the chives .

Spoon the mixture into the skins and place back onto the jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Transfer to a platter and serve!

Optional: top with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle with chives once they've cooled slightly.

A few quick notes:

Non-meaters: These are also scrumptious without bacon, so don’t bypass this recipe, or you’d be doing yourself a great disservice.

People with an aversion to sour cream: This group would actually include me. I don’t mind when a small amount of sour cream is mixed into something, but I don’t like it as a topping, so if you feel the same way, believe me, it is absolutely not necessary to add the dollop on top of the potatoes. I actually didn’t when I served them at my NYE party, I just added it to the “props” the next day so they would look prettier in the photo! Below is a picture I snapped during the party. Due to dim lighting, they’re not quite as lovely as those featured above, but in person they looked good!

Everyone: The purple potatoes are what make these so attractive, so don’t try to substitute regular old potatoes! You can find the purple ones at Whole Foods.