Natural Easter Egg Dye

Easter Bunny Ready!

Since having our little one we decided that we wanted to start more traditions for our family this year that we can continue as our daughter grows up. For Easter, dying eggs would of course be one of them. Though the dye found in the store kits is food-grade and generally considered safe I thought it would be fun to try to make my own dye. (I also apparently like to do things the long way..) I know it seems silly since she will only be about 8 months old this Easter but I'm guessing I need the practice for years to come. I chose to only do three colors knowing my husband and I would be eating all of the eggs. I chose yellow, blue, and purple; green from spinach didn't make the cut.

I'm not one for wasting food or advocating using food for play but I thought it would be cool to explore another amazing quality our food has. The plan was to make our own dye by using minimal ingredients. Each color will dye about 3-4 eggs so hard-boil your eggs accordingly.

Yellow- Turmeric (or Cumin), 3-4 tablespoons

Blue- red cabbage, that's right, "red" cabbage, 2 cups

Purple/Red- beets, 2 cups diced or shredded

To make the different batches of dye you will need to do a little prep work: peel, chop, shred, measure etc. See below for the steps to extract the color from each prepped ingredient.

Cabbage boiling away, smelled great ;)

-Add the color component of choice to about 2 cups boiling water
-Summer for at least 30 minutes; or longer for deeper color
-Strain any pieces and add to a large jar or glass container
-Cool liquid to room temperature, typically takes about 3 hours
-Add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, stir, and add 3-4 hard-boiled eggs
-Seal the container or jar and let sit in the refrigerator overnight or until desired color is reached
(for a shiny finish rub eggs with vegetable oil- I didn't and they were still plenty shiny)

Egg salad sandwich, anyone?