I’m intrigued with dyes in nature. It’s the good stuff…green spinach and kale, pomegranate that dyes our fingers red when we pry those seeds out and anti-oxidant-rich blueberries. This year, we are in the kitchen playing around with natural dyes. And I started early so we could really get our technique down! I did a little googling on the matter and was not surprised that red cabbage is a wonderful dye. I was surprised however, to find that it dyes the eggs blue! And boring old brown onion skins, who knew they make a perfect orange dye!?
Well, let’s get started! Buy a handful of beets, a head of red cabbage and a brown onion…
Roughly chop your ingredients. I’m not sure that heat helps release the dye, but I tried it, just in case. The cabbage went over the stove top and the beets and onion were microwaved for a few minutes in separate bowls.
Leave the mixture to steep for at least 15 minutes and then strain it into a bowl or mason jar. Add your hard-boiled eggs and decide how long you want to wait. I left mine overnight in the fridge.
Here’s what I found out…the red cabbage and the onion skins were awesome! They had rich vibrant color. You could leave them in for an hour to have a pale color. The beets left overnight just turned brown. Boo! But, when I had checked them after about an hour, they were a pale pink. I predicted leaving them overnight would result in dark pink, alas brown was what we got.
These mimic robin’s eggs, in that they are slightly speckled and have varied color. I love how rustic they are. I think the possibilities are endless and I’m excited to try spinach and pomegranate seeds next!
//photographed at my home studio in Long Beach