Easter Eggs: Natural Dyes

I remember a time back in elementary school when my teacher asked all the students to bring in onion skins. With the bulk of onion skins brought in, she taught us to dye eggs with it. That’s a memory that came back to me when I was reading my recent issue of Eating Well magazine. In an article called “Color Your World,” it describes how today Americans consume more than five times the amount of food dye than in 1955.

My magazine also had instructions on how to make natural egg dyes. I thought this would be perfect to replace PAAS dye for Easter eggs. The three natural ingredients I would use would be beets, turmeric, and red cabbage.


I cut up one large beet, chopped a quarter of a red cabbage, and added a tablespoon of turmeric into three separate bowls. I poured about two cups of boiling hot water into the bowls and let them steep for about two hours.


I removed the beets and cabbage from their bowls and added two tablespoons of distilled white vinegar in each bowl. At this point, I added hard boiled eggs into the bowls and put them in the fridge. I let the eggs soak overnight.


In the morning, I was amazed with the color. I pulled the eggs out of the liquid and placed them on a wire rack to dry.

My naturally dyed eggs came out beautifully. The beet produced a beet violet color, the turmeric produced a natural yellow color, and the red cabbage produced a light blue color. I am glad I can bypass PAAS dye this year. Happy early Easter!