seventyfive hopes you’re having a nice Spring, whether you’re having a holiday for Easter (4th of April), Qingming Festival (Tombsweeping Festival, also 4th), or another form of Spring break.
To celebrate Easter in North London, we decided to do something that we haven’t done since we were in primary school; make easter eggs.
In the video below we’ll show you how to naturally dye four different colours to make hard-boiled easter eggs (they should still be edible after!). In it we’ve used turmeric, red cabbage, beetroot and onion skins to make four different colours. We also used lemon juice as a binding agent.
To prepare the eggs before dyeing, simply put them in cold water and bring the water to boil. Once the water is boiling, continue cooking the eggs for 6 mins.
Each of the dye instructions are used to dye 2 boiled eggs.
Red cabbage dye:
½ small/medium red cabbage finely chopped
Boil the cabbage with 500ml water for 15 minutes
Strain the liquid into a jar and add baking soda(alkaline) for deeper blue, lemon juice or vinegar(acidic) for magenta. Dip a little bit of tissue paper to check the desired colour.
Place the eggs in the jar, make sure the eggs are fully submerged
Place the jar in the fridge overnight
Turmeric dye:
Add 3 tablespoons of turmeric powder to a jar
Add 500ml hot water to the jar and mix well
Add about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to the mixture
Place the eggs in the jar, make sure the eggs are fully submerged
Place the jar in the fridge overnight
Beetroot dye:
2 small beetroot finely chopped and add to the jar
Add 500ml warm water in the jar and mix well, you do not need to strain the liquid
Add about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to the mixture
Place the eggs in the jar, make sure the eggs are fully submerged
Place the jar in the fridge overnight
Onion skin dye:
Take about 2 cups of yellow onion skin, rinse with water
Boil the onion skin with 500ml water for 15 minutes
Strain the liquid into a jar and add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
Place the eggs in the jar, make sure the eggs are fully submerged
Place the jar in the fridge overnight
Take the dyed eggs out from the jars the next day and dry them with a dark towel as the food colouring might stain a light coloured one.
We added baking soda to our red cabbage dye and they came out dark turquoise! We also drew some patterns with lemon juice using a brush and they turned purple.
Upon further ‘inspection’ at lunch time today, the beetroot and red cabbage made quite interesting colour eggs for further consumption; they’d make quite interesting deviled eggs.
We hope you enjoy making these natural dyed easter eggs! Happy Holidays!
