Easter is such a traditional holiday, and involves favorites such as Good Friday service, egg hunts, baskets and bonnets, and eye dyeing. One of my favorite Easter traditions is dyeing Easter eggs! I’m so excited to share with you this Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs recipe.
I can remember being a little girl, dyeing eggs with my sister and cousins, eggs all over the place…just having the time of our lives! Remember those wax crayons how fun they were? Sure, back then and even in recent years, we used the grocery store standard food dye tablets. However, I’ve wanted to try to dye our Easter eggs with food-based dye for years, but I’ve always feel intimidated by it. It seemed like too much work with little to no results.
Since my son is 10 years old now, I thought this would be the perfect year to try it out! We gathered the natural ingredients from the produce or spice section of the grocery store, and set to work! He absolutely loved seeing how the fruits and vegetables could make pigments to dye eggs in. Before we began, he even tried to guess what color the different foods would turn the eggs.
Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs
Supplies
-hard boiled eggs (white eggs allow for more vivid colors; brown eggs would yield warmer/neutral tones)
-white vinegar
-3 beets
-turmeric
-3 red onions
-3 yellow onions
-10 oz. bag frozen blueberries
-coffee beans
-3 or 4 tea bags
-1 purple cabbage
-4-5 saucepans depending on how many colors you are making
-small containers or Mason jars to hold dye (bowls or plastic cups work too)
-spoons
-strainer
Here’s a small outline of what produce/spice will create each color. You may get different variations, as it varies on the different produce item and how concentrated the pigment is.
Beets: Red
Yellow Onion Peels: Orange
Red Onion Peels: Reddish Brown
Turmeric: Golden Yellow
Frozen Blueberries: Gray/Light Blue or Violet
Coffee Beans: Dark Rich Brown
Tea: Light Tan
Purple Cabbage: Light Blue
Ingredients
BEETS: RED
3 beets, peeled and grated
5 cups water
YELLOW ONION: ORANGE
3 yellow onions, peeled, just using the flaky skins (no flesh)
3 cups water
RED ONION: REDDISH BROWN
3 red onions, peeled, just using the flaky skins (no flesh)
3 cups water
TURMERIC: GOLDEN YELLOW
2 tablespoon ground turmeric
2 cups water
FROZEN BLUEBERRIES: GRAY/LIGHT BLUE
10 oz bag of frozen blueberries
2 cups water
COFFEE BEANS: DARK RICH BROWN
4 cups whole bean coffee
4 cups water
TEA: LIGHT TAN
3-4 tea bags (I used lemon lavender tea)
3 cups water
PURPLE CABBAGE: LIGHT BLUE
1 small head purple cabbage, grated
5 cups water
Instructions:
1. Place the produce/spice in a sauce pan with water and bring to a boil, then simmer for approximately 30-45 minutes. Increase the simmer time if you want darker hues.
2. Strain the liquid through a strainer or mesh sieve into a glass bowl or jar (big enough for your eggs to be submerged).
3. Add 2 tbsp. of vinegar to each solution and let cool to room temperature before submerging your eggs.
4. To dye the eggs, place the hardboiled eggs in the dye solution for up to an hour, or overnight for richer hues.
*I used my food processor to grate my produce pretty quickly
*I let my eggs sit in the solutions for 2 hours, and the shells were starting to get soft (due to the vinegar), so I suggest 2 hours max. I never tried leaving them in overnight.
*You can experiment by leaving the eggs in one color, and then dropping it into another color. It’s fun to mix-and-match.
After removing our eggs, I lightly dried them off with a paper towel, and left them in an egg carton to dry overnight in the fridge. This seems to help the color set. By morning, they were absolutely gorgeous!
The colors turned out so pretty on each individual egg and some even appeared to be marbled, which was awesome!
I know this seems like a ton of work, but it’s so worth it in the end. The colors are just so natural, gorgeous, and bring such a “farmhouse” and rustic feel. Put them in a wire basket in the middle of your dinner table, and you’ve got yourself one adorable centerpiece!
Have you ever tried dyeing your Easter eggs with natural dyes? I’d love to hear what you used and what worked for you!
Share this recipe with your friends!
Erica Leggiero, M.S. Ed.
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