It’s hard to believe that Easter is just a couple of days away, mainly because I barely know what day or month it is at this point of the quarantine. Since I have a lot more time on my hands right now, I turned my kitchen into what looked like a chemistry lab and made these naturally dyed eggs for Easter. You can get such pretty colors with these natural dyes, I love the soft toned pastel colors you can make using things you may already have in your fridge or pantry – who knew red cabbage would dye your eggs blue, or that you can use onion peels to make orange eggs! It’s so fun to see the dye start working as the eggs start turning all different colors. Even though Easter may look a little different this year, this is a fun little project to add some spring prettiness to your home!
YELLOW
2 TBS turmeric
1 cup boiling water
2 tsp vinegar
*Mix the three ingredients, let come to room temperature. I let the eggs sit in the mixture for about two hours, stirring them gently every 30 minutes or so because the turmeric tends to settle on the bottom.
LIGHT YELLOW
4 green tea teabags
1 cup boiling water
*Steep tea for 5 minutes and let it cool. I let the eggs sit in the tea for an hour to get a light yellow color.
ORANGE
Skins of 6 yellow onions
2 cup boiling water
3 tsp vinegar
*In a small pot, simmer the onion skins in water for 15 minutes. Transfer to your container, add vinegar and let cool. For a light orange color, I let the eggs sit for just under an hour, for darker orange eggs, let them sit in the mixture for longer.
BLUE
1 head red cabbage, chopped
4 cups boiling water
2 TBS vinegar
*Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and let cool. Once cooled, pour into your container through a strainer to get rid of the cabbage. Let eggs sit in liquid for several hours/overnight. (This color took the longest to show up on the eggs for me.)
GREEN
*Soak the eggs in the Yellow (turmeric) mixture for an hour or so, then transfer it to the Blue mixture for a couple of hours until the eggs turn green.
PINK
1 cup beet juice
1 TBS vinegar
*Mix the beet juice and vinegar, let eggs sit in the mixture for several hours.
BROWN
Skins 4 red onions
2 cups water
3 tsp vinegar
*Simmer the onion skins in water for 15 minutes, move to your container and add vinegar. Let cool, then let eggs sit in the mixture for an hour or so. (I’ve read that some people get green eggs with red onion, but mine turn brown.)
*Notes:
– The longer you let the eggs soak in the liquid, the darker they will be.
– Some colors take much longer to show up on the eggs than others do – for example, it took all day for the eggs to turn blue, while the yellow started to show up very quickly.
– When the directions call for boiling water, let the mixture come to room temperature before putting the eggs in.
– Use white eggs for best effect.
– I got some of the color recipes from this BHG article, you can always experiment with mixing some of the colors together to get new colors!
