For this bento I have a small totoro container filled with rice, konnyaku no miso ni, and purple potato salad. The pink onigiri shaped container is home to some grapes, vanilla almond granola cluster cereal, and pretzels.  The potato salad is delightfully tasty and I rather enjoy it. I had some purple potatoes that I wanted to use up, so I just made a quick, improvised potato salad. I think this is a little more Japanese style than American.

Purple Potato Salad

• 2 purple potatoes
• mayonnaise
• mustard
• 1 carrot
• crushed red chili peppers

Cut the potatoes into manageable chunks and boil for about 10-15 minutes until your desired consistency. Towards the end, add the peeled and sliced carrot and boil for two minutes. Take vegetables out, rinse with cold water. Add mayonnaise until vegetables are just coated. Add mustard to taste (~1 tablespoon) and crushed red pepper flakes to taste (~1 tsp). Mix all ingredients together and set in refrigerator overnight.

The fact that it’s just potato and carrot reminds me a lot of potato salads I had in Japan. The spicy peppadew mustard and red chili flakes add a nice punch of spice at the end. I was surprised that this turned out as well as it did, especially since the water I was boiling the potatoes in turned green for some reason and these potatoes were quite old and not as purple as I’d like.