• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Dina
    • Contact
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
    • Grains & Pulses
    • Salads & Soups
    • Breads
    • Meat & Poultry
    • Seafood & Fish
    • Yoghurt
    • Drinks
    • Pastry & Sweets
    • Christmas
  • Travels & Stories
  • Lebanese Cookbook
    • Cookbook
    • Press
    • Events

Dina's Kitchen

Lebanese Recipes

April 15, 2022

Natural Easter Egg Dye

Traditions and customs are the only constant in an ever-changing world, cemented in our minds to be passed on to next generations. Without them we feel lost.

One beloved tradition of mine is dyeing eggs on Good Friday. Besides Easter baking that includes in my household Lebanese sweets like Maamoul or German Easter bread, colouring eggs on Friday is one of the most fun activities at Easter time.

When my children were small, I had little time on my hand, so I used store-bought Easter egg dye, ignoring the chemicals in it. Although I used to buy organic colouring, it was clear to me that it wasn’t totally chemical free. (Sorry kids!)

In the last few years with lots of time on my hand in a much quieter home, I switched to natural egg dyes. I have used three different dyeing agents so far. Red cabbage, beetroot, and turmeric root, whereas turmeric powder works all the same. I am pretty much fascinated with the charm of the muted colours even though they are not as vivid as chemical dyes.

How to make natural Easter egg dye.     

  • Bring 2 Liters water to a boil in a large pot. You can adjust water to the amount of dyeing agent you are using.
  • Add your dyeing agent, cover and simmer over medium-low for about 45 minutes to one hour.
  • Strain liquid into a jar or a bowl while still hot. I usually use 500 ml of the liquids in one bowl. To this bowl I add 2 tablespoons white vinegar. You can also add instead 1 teaspoon of baking soda. See Green dye!
  • Boil your eggs separately. Rinse with cold water. Dye while hot.
  • Add 2 to 3 hard boiled eggs and let sit for at least 2 hours.
  • For a shinier finish rub each egg with little vegetable oil using a cloth or kitchen krepp.

1- Natural Blue color

You will need half a red cabbage, or a small one, shredded. To get the blue color, you add 2 tablespoons vinegar to 500 ml dye.

You can use cooked cabbage for salad!
Blue is the upper bowl to the left

2- Natural Green Color

You will need red cabbage. This time you add 1 teaspoon baking soda to 500 ml liquid.

See bowl on the upper right.

3- Natural purple color

You will need 2 big beetroots, sliced. You add 2 tablespoons vinegar to 500 ml liquid.

Anti clockwise starting upper right: Cabbage,Green/ Cabbage,blue, Beetroot purple (with vinegar)/ Beetroot with baking Soda ( very pale color, so eggs landed in vinegar again), turmeric root, yellow

4- Natural yellow color

You will need turmeric roots, or powder. Today I used both together, and I added both vinegar and baking soda to the dye. It foamed a little, so be careful! Nevertheless the color came out intense, and beautiful.

I noticed that the yellow was very pale. So I reboiled the water with one teaspoon turmeric powder. Then added vinegar and baking Soda. See colour below.
Yellow here is more intense

Results of Today’s Dyeing:

For more shine

Rub each egg with little vegetable oil.

Filed Under: General, Travels & Stories

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Manfred says

    April 15, 2022 at 18:34

    Das sieht nach einem Haufen Arbeit aus.
    Glaubst du deine Kinder wären besser geraten, wenn sie nicht
    durch diese Chemikalien vergiftet worden wären?
    Merkwürdige Gedanken von
    Manfred

    Reply
    • Dina says

      April 22, 2022 at 8:19

      Die Chemikalien waren nicht schlecht, after all! Aus den Kinder ist etwas tolles geworden:)

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

stay connected

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Get the newsletter

Thank you!

My Cookbook

Most Popular Recipes

Mhallabiyyeh – Creamy Rice Pudding

Limonada – Lemonade

Ijjet Kousa – Zucchini Omelette

Byblos in Lebanon

Samkeh Harrah – Fish fillets with Tomato Chilli Sauce

Footer

stay connected

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Get the newsletter

Thank you!

Copyright© 2023 by Dina Kohl · Powered By Feast Design CO. · Impressum & Datenschutz