When I started this project, I wasn’t overly optimistic. I’ve seen naturally dyed eggs on the internet before – some were unimpressive, and I figured others had relied on generous photo editing. However, I was happily proved incorrect! Don’t get me wrong, some of my trials were complete duds. Paprika pretty much created a brown egg (those come out of a chicken naturally already!); red cabbage with baking soda was too splotchy for my taste; spinach was just…ugly. And there were several others just not worth the effort.
But some of the results were absolutely striking. It’s amazing how commonly available food can produce such intense color. When I was editing my photos, I actually had to reduce the saturation in some cases because they looked unnaturally electric.
The foods I had the most success with were: beets, onion skins, turmeric, chamomile (I used dried whole flowers but the contents of tea bags will also work), and red cabbage – all easy to find and relatively inexpensive. Here are some tips to make dyeing your eggs naturally both smooth and effective:
- Use tall, skinny jars to maximize the number of eggs. After I used a few mason jars I realized my water glasses were the perfect size.
- Allow plenty of time for the eggs to sit in the dye and then to dry. Most of my eggs soaked 12-18 hours.
- Save time by simmering the dyes for multiple colors at one time. Find any pot/pan that will hold 4+ cups of liquid and get to cooking.
- Use a combination of white and brown eggs for a wider range of color.
- Hard boil your eggs ahead of time. There are a lot of methods out there, but I love my Norpor Egg Timer.
This is a fun activity for everyone. Kids can help peel onion skins, measure ingredients, and get a kick out of checking in on the progress of the dyes at work. Adults and kids alike can take part in the wonderment of watching groceries turn into art! At 12 months, Zane is still too young to appreciate the process, but I was giddy over how beautifully the eggs transformed and look forward to sharing this little kitchen experiment with him in the future.
Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs
For all colors (depending on the size of your jar, can dye two, maybe three, hard boiled eggs at a time):
4 c water
1 tbsp vinegar
Color-specific addition:
Pinkish maroon – 1 medium beet, shredded (don’t need to bother with peeling)
Bright orange – dry skins of 3 large yellow onions
Bright yellow – 1 tbsp dried turmeric
Muted yellow – 2 tbsp dried chamomile flowers
Robin’s egg blue – 1/2 small red cabbage, shredded or chopped
1. In a medium pot or deep sauce pan over high heat, add the water and coloring agent. When the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the water color is vibrant and volume is reduced by half – for all colors I simmered about 20-30 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and strain mixture into a glass jar, and stir in the vinegar. Add the hard boiled eggs. Once the liquid cools to almost room temperature, cover, and move the jar to the fridge.
3. Let the eggs sit in the dye until the desire color is reached – all of my eggs were in the fridge 12-18 hours – carefully stirring a few times throughout that time to get dye on the spots touching the glass/other egg(s).
4. Place the eggs on a cooling rack (with something like an old dish towel underneath to catch the colorful drippings) until dry. You can speed this process by patting them a bit with a cloth or paper towel, but don’t apply too much pressure or you will remove some of the dye. Store in the fridge.
Will you be dyeing eggs this year? What’s your favorite method?
nectarine / 2217 posts
gorgeous colours :)!
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
This is awesome! We dye eggs year-round, so I will definitely be giving this a shot!
nectarine / 2600 posts
Those are lovely! Does it affect the taste at all?
guest
I tend to use blown eggs instead of boiled eggs (we eat a lot of scrambled eggs and quiches leading up to Easter) and love wrapping the eggs in onion skins, then covering with an old rag and string. This little egg package is boiled for ten minutes, and the result is this gorgeous marbled look. I also like buying dye kits and using wax crayons to create a batik effect.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Wow these are awesome! The yellow and orange are my favorite!! It’s crazy how red cabbage dyes an egg blue..!
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
They’re very pretty!
cherry / 158 posts
@TheSwissWifeStyle: I used all 2 dozen (!) eggs to make egg salad and didn’t notice a taste difference. I was surprised too that most didn’t change color under the shell – just a faint change here and there.
@Mary B.: I definitely want to try wrapping them in onion skins – that was my favorite color!
blogger / apricot / 424 posts
How fun and beautiful! I have only dyed eggs using the little tablets in the past but have been looking for some natural dyes to try out. I can’t wait to try this out. Thank you so much for sharing!
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
we’re going to give these a try because charlie really wanted to eat the eggs we dyed using those paas kits! the colors are beautiful!
cherry / 175 posts
I love the hues! What a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing!
guest
???!!
guest
Wow! Your eggs are beautiful, particulatly the red cabbage aand Turmeric ones. We always eat decorated eggs at easter, but I have only used onion skin for dyeing before (like Mary B.), most of the time we paint them with water colour, bee’s wax (very cool effects when they eggs are still warm, or combined with water colour) and pencils. You can even use markers if you like, but they can bleed through. Last year we were travelling and painted the breakfast eggs with highlighting pens and HB pencils as that was what we had. That was messy though and some of it bled through (we ate the eggs anyways). I am bookmarking this for next year.