Hey mamas! I published this tutorial last year but wanted to re-share since spring is just around the corner. 🙂
So true, Mr. Lincoln! And I would say the same is true for advice on dyeing Easter eggs with natural ingredients. Take, for example, hibiscus. When I compiled a list of natural dyes a few years ago, it was said to make a beautiful pink. However, when I actually tested it the egg turned dark green. Oops.
After experimenting with everything from lemon peels and carrots to raspberries and grape juice, I’ve narrowed down my list to a few ingredients that consistently yield beautiful, vibrant colors. You’ll find them below along with the specific recipes I used.
Also, when the hunt is over, you can use the eggs to make my friend Jenny’s pesto egg salad!
Pink
Two cups water + two cups peeled, grated beets + vinegar (1 tablespoon per cup of liquid that remains after you simmer the grated beets and water)
Orange
2 cups yellow onion peels + enough water to cover skins by 1 inch + vinegar (1 tablespoon per cup of liquid that remains after you simmer the onion peels and water)
Yellow
Two cups water + 1 tablespoon turmeric + 2 tablespoons vinegar creates this vibrant yellow on white eggs and a deep gold on brown ones. The egg to the left of the one marked “turmeric” above is an example of what a brown egg looks like.
Other options: Strongly brewed chamomile tea creates a soft yellow.
Green / Blue
2 cups shredded purple cabbage + enough water to cover cabbage by 1 inch + vinegar (1 tablespoon per remaining cup after the dye is boiled)
Brown eggs will turn green and white eggs will turn blue.
Other options: Strongly brewed hibiscus tea (with one tablespoon vinegar per cup) will create the dark green pictured in the photo at the top. Blueberries will create a slightly marbled blue color.)
Purple
1-2 cups beet kvass – as much as is needed to cover the eggs. Here’s how to make it.
How To Dye Easter Eggs Naturally
Ingredients/Tools Needed:
- Natural dye materials (shredded beets, turmeric, etc)
- Filtered water
- 1 tablespoon vinegar per dye color
- pots for simmering ingredients and boiling eggs
- mesh strainer
- small bowls or mason jars (order mason jars here)
- eggs
- coconut or olive oil (optional – for adding luster to eggs)
Directions For Making Easter Egg Dye:
- Bring dye matter and water to a boil. Turn heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 15-60 minutes until desired color is reached. Keep in mind that the eggs will be several shades lighter so it’s best to go for deep, rich hues.
- Remove liquid from heat and let cool to room temperature.
- Pour dye through a mesh strainer into bowls/mason jars and add 1 tablespoon of vinegar for each cup of dye liquid.
- Add hardboiled eggs to dye and place in fridge until desired color is reached. I started mine in the early afternoon and let them set overnight.
Directions For Eggs:
- Add eggs to a medium pot and cover with cold water. Bring pot to a boil. Once it’s rolling turn off the heat and cover the pot. After 10 minutes, place eggs in a bowl of cold water and let sit until they’re cool to the touch.
- Drain bowl and replace with warm, soapy water – I use castille soap. Gently rub eggs with a washcloth or your thumb to remove oils that prohibit natural dyes from adhering as effectively to the egg shell.
- Lower egg into the dye and place them in the fridge. Soak until your desired color is reached.
- When the eggs are ready scoop them out with a spoon and place on a drying rack or an upside down egg carton.
- Naturally-dyed eggs have a matte finish. If you’d like to add a little luster, rub with a drop or two of coconut or olive oil.
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have always wanted to do these. just so expensive,but like anything natural i guess. par for the course of health 🙂
What’s expensive? Most of these use table scraps, stale spices or coffee.
How long would these eggs last? I’d like to make them with my son a couple days before Easter, and then try making the pesto egg recipe on Easter. Would they last in the fridge, or are they best eaten the same day? Thank you!
They should be kept in the refrigerator after dying them. A couple of days should be fine, they are just hard boiled egged after all is said and done.
We do this every year and LOVE it. The only thing is that it can be tough to find white eggs that are pasture-raised in my area, and dying brown eggs just makes them a slightly different shade of brown. Still loads of fun.
Meg Bailey Gustafson- I was worried about the cost too, but a deep blue dye made from purple cabbage is fairly inexpensive and you can use scraps from yellow/red onion and less than a tablespoon of turmeric for other gorgeous hues. It’s not as cheap as Paas dye, but it’s definitely doable with a little planning!
I agree!
I love the way you staged the photos…they are so appealing! 🙂
So fun! Can’t wait to try this! J is 14 months so this is the first Easter that he’ll have fun with it!
I was just telling my daughter, (as I was pouring some beet kvass) that her Great G-pa always used beets to color eggs!! This will be so fun! Thanks for sharing! Although, as we are preparing our dinners, one can save the onion peels or whatnot and keep adding to the certain color jar as you go up until Easter! That way you wont be going out to get EVERYTHING at once!
The natural colors look so much more vibrant and beautiful than store bought dyes! I was thinking about switching to natual dyes and just hadn’t looked up directions yet so thank you very much!
This sounds fun! I never dye eggs, but this sounds like a fun homeschool project! 😀
So…kids can get brain tumors from dying eggs??
Claudia Ritter – Well, probably not just from dyeing eggs, but we do avoid food dyes because of their strong link to brain and other cancers http://www.cspinet.org/fooddyes/
Awww, thanks Wyndie Pereira Mileski!
So true, Tonia Honer-Ophoven. I am saving my peels for the big day next week!
I always collect the red onion peels in the market in a separate plastic bag, toss it with the onions I am buying for the cash register. We have always used the red onion peels while coloring our Easter eggs in Armenia.
What a great idea!!
They’ll love it, LeeandMaia Forde! Katie was so excited to eat them this morning, which I considered a nice side benefit 🙂
oooh, that’s not bad. i wasn”t sure how to get 2 c of onion peels 😉
Thank you! I was just thinking about natural food coloring. 🙂
We love boiled eggs! I think the egg salad recipe you mentioned sounds amazing!!!
Don’t get me wrong – I was just reacting to the way that was presented. I choose natural over artificial, but usually not out of fearful reasons.
Ok, I think it get it now Claudia Ritter.For what it’s worth, all I meant is that there are fun and vibrant dye alternatives to what we grew up with 🙂
Love this – Just added the link to blog post I wrote here: Fun and Green(er) Easter ideas – https://www.mommypotamus.com/how-to-dye-easter-eggs-naturally-with-everyday-ingredients/
here’s the right link! Love your natural dyeing egg ideas and shared your link here: http://raisingnaturalkids.com/2012/03/12/fun-and-greener-easter-ideas/
My husband and I were just talking about trying to color eggs naturally with our 2-year-old, since this year she is old enough to dye eggs. Your post will save us lots of experimentation. Thanks:-)
I love this idea! I’m thinking I’ll have to try these as easter gets closer. I stopped dying eggs years ago and haven’t tried natural dying. I must give this a try now that I have a little toddler running around.
LOVES THIS! Beautiful pictures, great suggestions, woo hoo! Thanks Heather 🙂
The colors are so much more beautiful than the neon colors from the tabs : )
I can’t wait to try my own this year!
Wow!!! I am inspired.
You should try it, Elisabeth! Even if Hem is not interested this year you can hunt them 🙂
The turmeric and cabbage dyes worked out great!
Tried this today! The beets (pink) and turmeric (yellow) worked great! The carrots, not so much. I think I may have added too much water. Also, the stink from the cabbage was unbearable… I don’t think I will try it with cabbage again. It was such a fun project though! My kids (and husband) loved it! Well worth it!
Oh, so glad you liked it, Barbra! I must say I didn’t notice the cabbage smell, but we’ve always go so many experiments going on in our kitchen I think I’m desensitized now 🙂
Such a great post, Heather! I’m sharing it on my real food meal plan over at The Better Mom! Hope this sends many new friends your way! Lots of blessings to you for a Happy Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Kelly
Oh rad! I love these ideas, I’m sure you can use most of these natural items for dying food too. I shared this post on my Facebook. : )
Slightly off topic.. I’m going to use a similar method to dye some scarves I’m making, and wondering how I could accomplish a grey color. Activated charcoal maybe?
Possibly!
Charcoal won’t do anything to fabric. I’ve made a bluish gray using black beans – soak the beans overnight, strain the beans out (and cook them up into your favorite recipe!). Add your fabric to the juice and simmer until it’s the color you want. (if you don’t use any heat you can get a vibrant blue)
Other ways to get gray is to use more than one dye that are opposite the color wheel. Like a purple dye and a green dye, or blue and brown. Dye the cloth one color, then the other.
Finally worked up the courage to dye eggs with my 17mo and 3 yo. WOW I dont remember the chemical dyes even being so vibrant. I love the purple from the beet kvass, blue from the red cabbage, yellow from turmeric, and orange from yellow onions. The only duds we had were grape juice and spirulina.
I just did mine, and turmeric and red cabbage together make a pretty green, even though the dye looks just kind of maroon when you mix them. I also tried to get red with cranberries and it did not make them red, instead they became speckled gray.
Oh I love how your dark grape colored ones turned out! I didn’t do blueberries this year but I was happy with my rainbow from the turmeric, beets, onions and cabbage. 🙂
Kim Bruizeman Weller, looks good!
Thanks Leah Hughes…love these ideas!!
Mariya Kudyakova, April Shaner, Stefani Williamson Gentry This is just what we were talking about the other night!
Great tips, thank you!
Another trick my mother-in-law does is to wrap an egg in an old sheer nylon sock or cut -off foot of pantyhose, stick some small leaves (clover or similar) onto the egg, knot tightly and then dye the egg. The shape of the leaf will stay on the eggshell and give it an extra nice pattern.
We tried these and some worked and others didn’t. Next year we’ll do some more research and try again.
I followed the directions exactly.
Turmeric for yellow was great!
Purple cabbage for blue was okay.
Onion skins for orange was very good.
Spinach for green was a DUD as was the cranberries for pink. Both left my white eggs a mottled grey. ICK! My natural brown and greenish blue eggs are much prettier than these!! I’ll use the ugly ones for egg salad right away. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback, Cathy. I’m going to update the post 🙂
Can’t wait to try these this Easter, thanks for the great idea’s and this wonderful website!
Love this idea! My little is only 4 months so we won’t be dying eggs this year, but probably next!
The only thing about this that makes me nervous is the washing of the eggs. I know you don’t do it until after they’re boiled, but I think I would opt to lightly sand the shells with a fine grit paper.
I’m so surprised by the onion and cabbage! Beautiful! I’ve been experimenting with natural dyes for icing for sugar cookies and still trying to figure out a blue!
What a fabulous post! I would’ve loved this option when I did eggs years ago but I didn’t consider it then. I found the link to this article on Organic Week, very cool (if I could do a thumbs up you could see, I would!)
Hi! thanks for this! just wondering, is there a typo in the Pink dye? Did you use onion peels AND beets together, or just beets? >> Above it says “Two cups water + two cups peeled, grated beets + vinegar (1 tablespoon per cup of liquid that remains after you simmer the ****ONION PEELS**** and water)”
OOPS! Yes, that’s a type. It should say “after you simmer the shredded beet and water.” Thanks so much for pointing that out. I’m correcting it now!
Can those dyes be stored overnight in a fridge and used next day? In other words, do they need to be freshly made in order for them to work?
Yes, they can be stored overnight. However, in my experience the eggs have the most brilliant color if they are allowed to sit overnight so I’d put the eggs in, too 🙂
You don’t need vinegar, especially not for onions or turmeric. Vinegar only changes the color of cabbage. (baking soda shifts it the other way). Vinegar is a necessary ingredient for artificial food dyes, and because most people come from dyeing with the artificial colors, they get confused about the need for vinegar. It’s not at all necessary for natural dyes, and can in fact sometimes make the color weaker.
Nice ideas but blasphemy for the Abe Lincoln quote…Since our country is trying to rewrite history- hoping that a millennial will not believe that quote. More needed to be said to put it into context.
Too many sound bites sent out over the internet. Be careful of what your children read…and believe. Try not to mix cooking with historical/political humor…if that was your intent…
If you wanted or needed advice from strangers, Heather, my own would be to go ahead and mix cooking and historical or political humor any time you feel like it! It’s your blog! The quote makes me laugh. 🙂
Any REASONABLE person, even a child, Anita, should realize that it couldn’t POSSIBLY be a Lincoln quote. The Internet didn’t exist until the last quarter or so of the 20th century. You are far too serious. Get over yourself!
Annie’s right, Heather. It’s your blog … Your sense of humour. Keep it up, Mommypotamus! You’re doing great!
Does anyone know if the color would seep through so that my deviled eggs will have a fun color?
For the most part the color stays on the shell, but if there are cracks a little will seep through 🙂
Sheri, My four year old granddaughter cracked over a dozen while coloring eggs yesterday, and the colors on the egg whites were amazing! We used traditional food coloring this year, so when we go natural dyes next year there may be some concern over getting the flavor/smell of the dye in the eggs. While Joslyn was coloring with dye, my children and I were trying the silk tie squares tied on and simmered for 30 minutes method. some came out okay, some not very vivid. This is another option you may want to try. I believe the website was Salt that listed the instructions.
This doesn’t really work on brown eggs. Use white eggs unless you want varying, rather unattractive & unappetizing shades of brown-colored Easter eggs. Also, leaving the eggs soaking overnight in order to squeeze out color caused the eggs to peel and shed layers. Boo.
Love this! We did onion skin dyed eggs this year. We wrapped them in the skins and boiled them which gave a neat marbled look. We will have to try out some of the other colors! Who says egg dying is only for Easter?! 😉
What a great thing to do I love it. I wonder if I can send it to my daughter. I know she would like it.
What a topical post! Thanks so much! I trust your suggestions! How can I produce red dye? Would mixing the dyes from beet and turmeric be a good idea?
joined up half hour ago…no email yet and nothing in spam
Oh my goodness! These are so cute! I love this idea! I have been trying to find a way to do this without toxic dye! Thank you!
Great tutorial, Heather! Thanks for sharing!
One quick tip: not all of your subscribers identify as women/mamas. If you’d like to be more inclusive, perhaps use the filling words while addressing your crowd: everyone, folks, parents, all/y’all, people (or if you were being more formal, “distinguished guests” works just as well as “ladies & gents”).
Hope that helps! Looking forward to more gender-inclusive posts. 🙂
How long will the dyes last? If I make in stages now, will they save until I dye eggs in a couple weeks?
You could try making the dyes and then freezing them and see how that works, but I wouldn’t recommend keeping them in the fridge that long as they may go bad.
Can I draw on the eggs with a wax crayon before dying them overnight, or will the wax dissipate from being in the water so long?
What a great idea! Especially since we are getting away from harmful dyes! Natural is always the best way to go. Thank you for the post!
I can’t wait to dye eggs!
Going to try this year.
Going to try this with my grand daughter!
I am going to try this out next week! Do you think the dyes change the flavors of the eggs?
I heard that adding salt helps make the dye darker. Have you tried this? We only have brown eggs. Is there a color that works on them?
Do you find that that the settling of the turmeric affected the egg color? Mine settled to the bottom. But I see that one of your yellow eggs is much lighter than the other and am wondering if that’s because of the settling?
I’m wondering how your Hibiscus egg turned out green? My hibiscus tea is pink, and with a double amount simmered on the stove it is a dark fuschia. Did I miss something? I was counting on the beet for pink.
My hibiscus tea was fuschia as well. For some reason it reacts with the eggshell in a way that turns it green.
I’m loving your DIY articles, Heather. I’ve been interested in natural dye alternatives for a while now. I recently found a really interesting one and I was wondering if you have any experience with using avocado peel and pits for dyeing. I heard it gives a beautiful pinkish color.
Very excited to try your eggshell dye.