How To Dye Easter Eggs Naturally
Easter is right around the corner. Did you know you can dye Easter eggs naturally?
This year skip the toxic store-bought dyes. With a few natural ingredients you can achieve beautiful blue, pink, yellow and green eggs.
The recipe couldn’t be easier, it just takes some time and patience. Start with white hard-boiled eggs, cooled to room temperature. Soak the eggs in the dye-bath, once they have turned the desired color, remove them from the staining liquid and place them on paper towels to dry completely.
For paler eggs leave them for a short time (30-40 minutes); for darker eggs, let them soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. The longer you soak them, the darker your eggs will get.
A few tips:
- When you boil the eggs, start with room-temperature eggs instead of cold ones, to prevent cracking.
- You can prepare the dyes ahead of time.
- Use a small bowl or a narrow glass jar to soak the eggs. You want the dye to cover the eggs, the smaller the container, the easier it is.
- Adding vinegar will help make the colors brighter.
- If you want shiny eggs, rub them with some vegetable oil once the dye is dry and polish with a paper towel.
You can keep your dyed Easter eggs in the refrigerator for about a week.
Have you used any natural dyes for your Easter eggs? How did they turn out? If you try this recipe I’d love to see what you come up with! Leave a comment and don’t forget to take a picture and share it on my Facebook page or tag it #aseasyasapplepie on Instagram!
How To Make It: How to dye Easter eggs naturally
Ingredients
- 1 dozen white hard-boiled eggs
- 4 cups (960 ml) dye liquid
- Blue dye:
- ½ head red cabbage
- 4 cups (960 ml) water
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- Yellow dye:
- 4 cups (960 ml) water
- 2 tablespoons turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- Pink dye:
- 4 cups (960 ml) water
- 1 medium beet cut into chunks
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
Instructions
- To make blue dye:
- Put the cabbage and water in a large pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool at room temperature. Pour the dye through a mesh strainer into small bowls or glass jars and stir in the vinegar.
- To make yellow dye:
- Place turmeric and water in a medium-sized pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let it sit until cool. Pour the liquid in small bowls or glass jars and stir in the vinegar. .
- To make pink dye:
- Place the beetroot and water in a medium-sized pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let it sit for 1 hour. Pour the dye through a mesh strainer into small bowls or glass jars and stir in the vinegar.
- To make green eggs:
- Dye the eggs yellow than dip them in the blue dye until you’ve reached the desired shade.
- How to dye Easter eggs:
- Gently, place one egg in each jar and let it sit for at least 30 minutes, or until you’ve reached the desired shade.
- Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove the eggs from the dye and place them on paper towels to dry.
Notes
4 when I was a little girl my granny would take an onion yellow onion and boil the skins off of them. This made excellent egg color for yellow eggs. 4 red eggs we use the roots of the beat and the Redskins from red onions. Four green eggs if we couldn’t find any green eggs from Growers we used cabbage leaves and spinach in a pan of hot water and boil it until the right consistency of color that we needed
Thank you for the tips, Sherie! :)
What an informative post! I can’t wait to try your method with my granddaughters!
Thank you, Linda! :)
Great tutorial, thank you for sharing!!
Thank you, Tara! :)