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All Natural Food Dyes + Cracked Shell Easter Eggs

Ditch the store-bought egg dye kits this Easter and make your own with ingredients found in your kitchen. A fun experiment for kids!

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Easter is just around the corner. Are you going to be decorating eggs with your family?

I’ve been meaning to try out homemade egg dyes for Easter for years now. The kits available at stores make it so easy, but why buy them when I have a kitchen full of things that could be used as chemical-free dyes?

Overhead view of pots full of natural Easter egg dye ingredients with bowls of hard boiled eggs in the background.

I knew I wanted to use purple cabbage since I had a bunch left from making this killer pizza. I thought turmeric would be sure to dye the eggs well (since it dyes everything it touches whenever I use it!), so I used that along with some black tea leaves in my second saucepan.

I also heard that dried dill worked well, so I added that to a third pan, and realized that I only had 1 tablespoon left in the house. Yikes! Part of the point of this experiment was to see what I could come up with that was hanging out around the house, so rather than head out to buy more dill. My husband suggested matcha, so I added that to the dill for the last dye.

A boy holding a carton of naturally dyed Easter eggs.

They worked out so beautifully! My son was super excited to see how we could turn vegetables and spices into a craft in the kitchen.

He had a lot of fun watching the pans as they simmered and got more vibrant.

A child with bowls of Easter eggs soaking in natural egg dyes.

After an overnight stay in the containers of dye in the refrigerator, we rinsed them off, gently dried them and packed them up for his school’s Easter Egg Hunt.

He was dancing around with the eggs, just so, so proud of his creations!

A boy holding a carton of naturally dyed Easter eggs.

We only needed 6 eggs for school, but we dyed 12 total so we would have some to enjoy at home, too.

When we were adding the hard boiled eggs to the containers of dye, I accidentally dropped one on the counter and cracked it. My son was concerned about it, so I told him that it’d be fine and that we could gently crack half of our eggs for another experiment!

2 peeled, naturally dyed Easter egg with a cracked shell pattern and more Easter eggs in a carton in the background.

The cracked shell patterns turned out so great! All we did was gently tap and crack the hard boiled eggs on all sides before submerging them in the dyes.

The results were super fun – the turmeric/black tea ones worked the best. The dill/matcha were pretty good, and the cabbage was nice and light blue.

A hand holding a naturally dyed Easter egg with a cracked shell pattern on it and more Easter eggs in a carton in the background.

This was such a fun activity for me and my son. He loved seeing the color come out of the red cabbage leaves after they boiled. The water was bright purple, but the eggs turned a beautiful pale robin egg blue.

With how much my family loves egg salad sandwiches, I think we may just experiment with more natural dyes all year ’round!

A child's hand holding a naturally dyed Easter egg with a cracked shell pattern on it and more Easter eggs in a carton in the background.

Looking for more of our favorite egg recipes? Check out these 5-star recipes:

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A boy holding a carton of naturally dyed Easter eggs.

All Natural Easter Egg Dyes

  • Author: Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen - Ashley Covelli
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: varies
  • Category: Appetizer
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American

Description

Ditch the store-bought egg dye kits this Easter and make your own with ingredients found in your kitchen. A fun experiment for kids!


Ingredients

Scale

For Pale Blue:

For Golden Yellow:

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon dried black tea leaves
  • 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

For Pale Yellow-Green


Instructions

  1. For each dye, place ingredients (except vinegar) in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and let cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
  2. Stir in vinegar and transfer to whatever container you’re using to store them in the refrigerator while they soak. Add hard boiled eggs and cover tightly. Refrigerate, preferably overnight, until color is set.
  3. Remove eggs from dye, rinse and pat lightly to dry.

Notes

You can use zip-top bags to hold the dye and eggs, but I’d recommend storing the bags inside a bowl or other container so they don’t leak out in the refrigerator.

If your dye doesn’t quite cover the eggs, just gently shake the container occasionally to roll the eggs around while they soak. That’s what I did for the gold and yellow eggs, and it gave them a fun, mottled look.

Keywords: naturally dyed easter eggs, natural egg dye, how to dye eggs

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Ditch the store-bought egg dye kits this Easter and make your own with ingredients found in your kitchen. A fun experiment for kids!

Ashley Covelli is a food photographer, recipe developer, and culinary instructor based in Ossining, New York. She loves helping people become enthusiastic and adventurous in the kitchen so that they can build skills and confidence to cook for themselves and their loved ones. She can almost always be found with at least 3 different beverages within arm's reach.

One Comment

  • Lori H

    So fun! I love how the cracked eggs turned out. It still surprises me that the purple cabbage turned out to be that shade of blue on the eggs. Go figure! 😉

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