Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I was conflicted over dying Easter eggs this past week. Kind of silly, right? Well, I am passionate about eating real food and supporting my local friends who raise beautiful brown and blue eggs. The thought of buying eggs at the store made my stomach hurt, so I googled "can you dye brown eggs" and guess what? You sure can. Thanks for the confirmation, Martha Stewart!

I had never dyed eggs from natural dyes before this year. I usually bought the typical kit with the tablets of dye and went on our merry way. I had leftover ColorKitchen dye from Christmas cookies, but they informed me that their dyes for frostings and foods wouldn't work well on egg shells. BUT, they do have an Easter egg dye kit that you can get here. They also gave me a 15% off coupon code if you're interested - CKEASTER. Unfortunately, my kit wouldn't be here in time for dying eggs, so I decided to dye my own with vegetables and spices.

It was a fun experiment, and the girls loved it. I did some research, and it's super simple to do. I took one cup of a chopped veggie, and added it to a sauce pan with one cup of water. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer (covered) for 30 mins. I strained the water and added it to a glass Ball jar. I let the dye come to room temperature and added a few tablespoons of vinegar to the dye. I then added my cooked eggs to the dye and let them sit for a good four hours in the fridge. Scroll through photos below to learn more! If you'd like a video with instructions, visit my Instagram page and check out my highlights.

---

Veggies & spices for the dye

I used purple cabbage (for blue), beets (for pink/red), red onion skins (for rust/maroon), and tumeric (for yellow). I took a cup of each veggie, minus the tumeric, and added it to a cup of water to a sauce pan. I brought the mixture to a boil and cooked on medium/low, covered, for 30 minutes. I did the same with tumeric, but only used 2 tablespoons of ground tumeric. I strained the liquid and added the dye to glass Ball jars. I let the dye come to room temp and added a few tablespoons of vinegar to the dye. I then added my cooked eggs to the dye. I cooked them in my Instant Pot - 5 mins manual high, 5 mins natural release, and 5 mins in an ice bath. I let the eggs sit in the dye for a good four hours. Here's how they turned out...

---

Purple Cabbage

This was such a fun dye! It almost looked purple in the sauce pan, but after four hours, the egg was blue and dried beautifully. There are hints of both purple and blue with a touch of green.

Red onion skins

I read that red onion skins give a maroon or rust colored tint to the egg shell, depending on what color egg was being used. My red onion skins definitely dyed my egg a rust color.

Beets

I think I was most perplexed by this dye, and I wasn't expecting to be. When I took the egg out of the beet dye after four hours, it was a beautiful pink/magenta color. But, as it started drying, it started to speckle and marble. See for yourself below!

Tumeric

Tumeric is yellow. The tumeric made a very yellow dye, and a very yellow egg. No surprises here!

Purple cabbage & tumeric

I really wanted to create a green egg, so I thought I'd mix the purple cabbage dye and the tumeric dye. What made me laugh was when I mixed the two dyes they made orange... I still added the egg to the mixed dye and thought I'd give it a shot. After four hours, I was surprised to see a perfectly green egg!

Beet & purple cabbage

Perplexed at how the beet dye dried on the egg, I added a beet dyed egg to the purple cabbage dye and got this beautiful purple/blue/grey egg.

Overall, this was a lot of fun. It was also fun to do with the girls, and this is something we'll do with the girls each year. The unknown of how they'll turn out makes for an exciting, satisfying surprise. Give it a try and let me know how your eggs turn out!

​Happy Easter!