Naturally dyed Easter eggs

Technically this is my daughter’s second Easter, but it is the first one she will actually be able to participate in and enjoy, so I wanted to make some traditional dyed Easter Eggs for her. I wanted dye that would be non toxic and natural since pretty much everything ends up in her mouth at some point. So I tried my hand at making some naturally dyed eggs from simple ingredients you can find in your kitchen, and they turned out awesome! It wasn’t complicated at all, and it’s a good way to get kids excited about fresh vegetables and spices because that’s what you’re going to be using! All that is required is some red cabbage, red and yellow onions, red beets, red wine, turmeric, and chlorophyll (ok maybe that’s not a regular staple of most kitchens but it’s easy to find at any health food store), salt  and white vinegar. And hard-boiled eggs of course.

Blue dye

For blue dye we are going to use red cabbage. It seems like this should make purple dye, but it actually makes the most beautiful vibrant blue that’s almost a teal color.

Shred a head of red cabbage. For every cup of cabbage add a cup of water to a pot. Depending on how many eggs you will be dying you can adjust the amount you make. Bring the cabbage and water to a boil and simmer until the water is a couple of shades darker than you want your dye to be. This should take anywhere from 15-45 minutes depending on how dark you want it.

Strain the solids out of the liquid and let cool to room temperature. For every cup of dye liquid add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and 1 tablespoon of salt. Add your room temperature eggs to the dye. Depending on how bright you want them, place your container in the fridge and let the eggs sit for anywhere from thirty minutes to overnight. Thirty minutes yield a very delicate pastel blue, overnight the vibrant teal or Robin’s egg blue.

Once they are the color you want, carefully remove them from the dye and place on a wire rack to dry. Note that the dye takes a bit of time to set. So do not rinse the eggs or rub them until they are completely dry. Unless you want to lighten it, or create a “tye-dye” look, which is what I did with one of the blue eggs. I ran it under water immediately and gently rubbed it with my fingers. It creates a beautiful mottled effect.

red dye

The exact same instructions apply for the red dye, your just going to substitute beets for the cabbage. However, if you want a more vibrant pink, than raw beet juice is better. In that case you will add 1/4 cup vinegar to 2 cups of raw beet juice (no cooking) and add your boiled eggs. The cooked beet water dye resulted in some pale pink, with a bit of gold as well. The vibrant pink/red was only achieved with the raw juice, so whatever your going for. I let my eggs sit overnight for the brightest results. I added strips of duct tape to one egg before putting it in the juice to get a striped effect.

Yellow dye

For this dye you will add 6 tablespoon of Tumeric to 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Let simmer until Tumeric is dissolved. Let cool to room temperature and add 1/4 cup vinegar and 2 tablespoons salt. Place eggs in the dye and let sit until desired color is reached. The lighter egg is 6 hours, the darker egg was overnight and roughly 12 hours. You can still get a lovely pastel yellow in as little as thirty minutes to one hour.

Onion skin dye

A tradition in many cultures is to dye eggs with onion skins. It results in a very vibrant gold and rust colors depending on if you use yellow or red onion skins or a combination of both.  This dye is so simple and works SO fast. No need to leave this one overnight. I used mostly red onion skin with a few yellow thrown in because I had them. You will just need the papery skin of the onion. You will need a produce bag full of skin or the skin of roughly 10 onions. You can simply ask the produce guy at your market for the skins that they generally remove and throw away, or do what I did which was buy a few onions and while I was there I cleaned all the loose onion skin from the bottom of the bin and it was the perfect amount. Put skins in a pot add water to just cover and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling add RAW eggs. This is the only dye that you will be cooking the eggs in. Let simmer for 15-30 minutes then remove from heat and let the eggs sit in the dye for as long as you like. I left mine while we went out, so probably 3-4 hours, and when I got home they were a very dark rust color so I removed them. You can rub them right away (the dye will rub off before it sets) for designs or a mottled look, or let the dye set as is. You can also add designs to the egg before boiling by placing cilantro or parsley leaves directly on the egg, cut a four-inch tube of nylon stocking, place egg in and secure tightly on both sides. The result is stunning. I love this method of coloring eggs.

Green Dye

For this dye I used 1 cup chlorophyll and one cup water to which I added 2 Tablespoons of vinegar and two tablespoons salt. This dye does not require cooking, just place hardboiled eggs in and let sit as long as you like. This dye doesn’t adhere as well as some of the others so be gentle when you remove the eggs from the dye. They will have a “residue” on them that once dry can be lightly brushed away. I liked how the residue made them look, almost marbled, so I left it.

Red wine dye

This was the most surprising and awesome of all the dyes I tried. It resulted in a color that was somewhere between Eggplant purple and charcoal gray. Put hardboiled eggs in container and cover with red wine. No cooking necessary. The most amazing part was that when it dried it was covered in sparkles as if I had rolled it in glitter or crystalized sugar. The pictures don’t do it justice. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! It looks like some spectacular rock form another planet. Just gorgeous. This is the first time I’ve tried it so I don’t know if these results are typical. I will also say that I accidentally poured 1/4 cup vinegar into the wine thinking it was my beet juice. After an hour I noticed that the eggs were coated in bubbles and it didn’t seem like the dye was adhering so I put the eggs in a fresh container and covered with just red wine. I let them sit overnight. I don’t know if it was the vinegar that created this effect, or if it would have happened with just the wine. I will have to try again and see.

So that’s it! It really didn’t take much time at all to prepare, then just let the eggs sit as long as you want and you have stunning, vibrant naturally dyed Easter eggs that your little ones can eat without worry. Peel them first….obvi.

Enjoy!

xo