How to Naturally Dye Eggs With Vegetables, Spices, and Flowers
Instructions for using vegetables and spices to naturally dye Easter eggs. This recipe gives six different colors, but feel free to experiment with other edible plants and spices. Each dye takes about half an hour to make and the eggs sit in the dye for an hour to overnight. Onion skins create orange eggs, cabbage blue to purple eggs, beets pink to mauve,
Servings 6 dye pots
Cost $15
Equipment
- 1 saucepan Two is even better
- 4 heat-proof jugs (or jars) Mixing bowls, jugs, pans, etc.
- fine mesh sieve or colander
- Slotted spoon or ordinary spoon
- Mason jars (pint) or other wide-mouth jars or containers
Ingredients
- 12 eggs white shelled for bright colors and brown shelled for dark and earthy tones
- 10 TBSP distilled white vinegar
- 2 cups red cabbage chopped
- 2 cups onion skins
- 2 cups beet root Grated
- 2 TBSP Turmeric
- 2 TBSP dried butterfly pea flowers
- 2 TBSP hibiscus flowers (dried)
Instructions
- You can prepare each vegetable dye at the same time or one by one if you wish. Place the cabbage and onion skins into their own saucepan and with two cups of water each. Heat on high until a simmer, then reduce heat to low and continue simmering for fifteen to thirty minutes.
- Place the turmeric, hibiscus, butterfly pea flowers, and freshly grated beetroot into their own heat-proof containers. Pour two cups of scalding water over each and allow to steep for fifteen minutes. Stir occasionally.
- After fifteen minutes, strain the liquid from the vegetable matter and pour each into separate wide-mouth containers. I use pint-sized Mason jars.
- Add two Tablespoons of distilled white vinegar to each dye pot and allow them to cool to room temperature.
- Using a spoon, gently place hard-boiled or uncooked eggs in the dye liquid. Leave them to soak for one to twelve hours in the refrigerator. Two eggs should fit into each dye pot.
- After the time is up, gently lift the eggs out using a spoon. Leave to dry on a rack set over paper towels.
- For more intense colors, you may wish to take the eggs out and allow them to dry before putting them back in the dye again. Each dunk can build up layers of dye on the eggshell*. You can also try dunking eggs dyed one color into another.
- When dyeing is complete, and the eggs are fully dried on the rack, place them back into their cartons and refrigerate. Use them for eating within a week of dyeing them.
Notes
* The dye liquid can be used many times over for different eggs.