Dying Easter eggs is one of my favorite holiday activities. It’s just so fun to pop a boring white egg into a cup and have it be a fun new color when it comes out. I’ve always used the egg dye kits you can buy from the store, but I wanted to show Nugget that you make your own colors from foods we already have at home.
Here’s what can be used to get different colors:
- Red/Pink: Beets (I used canned beets and just poured the liquid into a cup with a tbsp. of vinegar)
- Orange: Paprika (I didn’t make orange, but you would boil 1tbsp. paprika in 1 cup of water with 1 tbsp. vinegar)
- Yellow: Tumeric (I boiled 1 tbsp. tumeric in 1 cup of water with 1 tbsp. of vinegar)
- Green: I dipped a dyed yellow egg into the blue, but you can use the water from boiled spinach or kale. My method got me more of a teal, but the spinach method gets a yellow-green color
- Blue: Boiled red cabbage (I put a bunch of leaves into a cup of water and boiled, DO NOT add vinegar or it will turn the color pink)
- Purple: I dipped a red/pink egg into the blue, but you can use boiled blueberry puree
- Brown: Tea bag in hot water with tbsp. of vinegar (can also use brewed coffee with vinegar)
The colors will not be as bright as the store bought dye, but I love that they’re a soft pastel shade. I let the eggs sit for an hour before I pulled them out, but the longer they sit the more saturated the color will be. You can make the eggs more festive by drawing on them with a wax crayon, wrapping them in rubber bands, or adding fun shaped stickers to the eggs before dying them.
It’s a lot of fun to experiment with different foods and spices and see what colors you can come up with. I know Nugget and I will be making more eggs using some different foods as we get closer to Easter.
Do you usually dye eggs for Easter? I’d love to hear about your homemade dye color and creations so be sure to leave a comment and let me know.
