How To Dye Easter Eggs Naturally

April 18, 2019

Natural Easter Egg Dye Using Food Scraps

When you create natural Easter egg dye using just the items in your kitchen, you can’t help but feel like a bit of a chemist throughout. You’re using the natural pigments in potently colourful foods like turmeric, beets, and more to create dyes to dip your eggs in. You’ll see though, that many foods in these dye recipes produce more assorted colours than you wouldn’t expect. Not to mention, this is a wonderful way to reuse food scraps! Simply save your scraps from cabbage, beets, or onions throughout the week in a freezer bag and use them to dye your Easter eggs!

Why use natural Easter egg dyes instead of Food Colouring?

Chemical dye kits for Easter eggs are widely available but contain harmful chemicals that can make eating the post-dyed eggs unsafe. With natural dyes, you don’t have to worry about any of that, and are still able to achieve vibrant hues and fun designs. Plus, you’ve got everything you need for a full rainbow set ready to go in your kitchen right now.

Can you eat the eggs after?

When you’re using natural dyes, you don’t have to worry about the dye being an issue when it comes to safety and eating your eggs. However, if you’re hard-boiling your eggs, they need to stay refrigerated and shouldn’t be eaten if they are out of the fridge for more than 2 hours.

Re-use Natural Dyes:

The uses of these natural Easter egg dyes go far beyond just eggs! Use these hacks to colour icing when baking or could even be used as a tie-dye for clothing! When used in baking

Natural dye recipes

Pink: Cut 1 medium beet into small chunks, then add to 4 cups of boiling water. Add 2 tbsp vinegar. Remove beets when the mixture has cooled to room temperature.

Orange: Simmer the skin of 6 yellow onions in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes. Strain. Add 3 tsp of white vinegar.

Yellow: Stir 2 tbsp turmeric into 1 cup of boiling water. Add 2 tsp white vinegar.

Dark Red: Simmer 6 red onion skins in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes. Strain. Add 3 tsp of white vinegar.

Blue: Cut ¼ head of red cabbage into chunks. Add to 4 cups of boiling water with 2 tbsp vinegar. Let cool to room temperature and remove cabbage with a slotted spoon.

Bluish gray: Mix one cup of blueberries with 1 cup of water, bring to room temperature, remove blueberries.

Purple: Mix 1 cup grape juice and 1 tablespoon vinegar.

Brown: Add 1 tablespoon to 1 cup of strong coffee.