Natural Easter Egg Dye – Beets, Turmeric, Red Cabbage, Chili Powder, and Blueberries

A few years back I was searching for an easy, natural Easter egg dye, and I found the perfect solution. It’s easy, chemical-free and yields the most beautiful, natural shades of pastel eggs.

The week leading up to Easter Sunday brings me so many warm memories. As a child, one of my favorite family traditions was gathering around the kitchen table with my sibling to dye Easter eggs. There was always a bit of friendly competition (most often the girls teamed up against the boys for the best eggs to sit on top of mom’s Easter bread), but it was ALWAYS a wonderful bonding experience. I feel blessed to have children (ages 24, 23, 20, and 17) who still entertain my need to bring back this tradition in my own home.

I remember the anticipation of waiting on which boxes of egg coloring kits my mom would bring home. And for many years that excitement was the same for my children. But, for the past few years, I have slowly been reducing our use of chemicals in our home – Easter egg coloring included. So, I switched things up a bit. Instead of using our go-to box of PAAS egg coloring, I experimented with natural, food-based coloring. I used beets, turmeric, red cabbage, chili powder and blueberries. After a little trial and error, I was thrilled that my eggs transformed into perfect shades of pastels.

This method has only a few simple steps, but takes a little extra time than a box kit would.

How to Make Natural Easter Egg Dye:

1. Boil 2 cups water in a small pot.
2. Add natural coloring agent of choice.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or longer for the deeper colors.
4. Strain liquid into a large mason jar. Allow natural dye to cool to room temperature.
5. Add 2 tablespoons white vinegar and stir to combine well. Carefully place 3 hard-boiled eggs to each jar.
6. Seal the jar, and refrigerate overnight or until the egg is the desired color.
7. Remove colored eggs from jar and let them dry. Rub dried eggs with a drop of vegetable oil to give them a bit of a glossy finish. Vegetable oil rub is optional.

My five favorite foods to make natural Easter egg dye:

1. Red cabbage. Interestingly enough red cabbage does not give you a red/pink color. It yields a beautiful hue of pastel, purpley/blue.
2. Turmeric. Yields a beautiful shade of yellow.
3. Beets. Yield a beautiful shade of pastel pink
4. Blueberry. Yields a beautiful blue
5. Chili Powder. Yields a beautiful orange shade

Tips to keep in mind when using a natural Easter egg dye method:

• The natural food coloring method will not yield bold or neon colors like a box coloring kit. If you are looking for bold, neon shades this is not the method for you.
• You will need to set aside some extra time for the eggs to sit in the dye to achieve a deeper shade. If your egg coloring process needs to be wrapped up from start to finish in less than 30 minutes – this is not the method for you.
• If you are looking for natural, pastel, chemical-free Easter eggs and have a little extra time – give this method a try and let me know what you think in the comments.
• For quick hard-boiled eggs, I love my DASH egg cooker. It gives me hard boiled eggs quickly, it’s easy, and there’s no pot to wash.

Essential Tools To Naturally Color Your Easter Eggs:

This method is simple and easy. You only need a few kitchen items that you may already have on hand.

• Glass Mason Jars – I love my mason jars for so many things – egg dying included.
• Hard-boiled eggs to dye
• Foods that create a natural coloring agent
• White vinegar

Ball Mason Jars.

I always keep a few of these on hand. I mostly use them when we jar our tomato sauce at the end of the Summer, but they honestly are useful for so many things around the kitchen – Easter egg coloring is currently at the top of the list.

Paper Tags.

Perfect to indentify your dye colors.

If you love keeping things simple and want more ways to create warm traditions in your life, grab my free guide – 7 days of intentional living for busy moms.