At Easter, we traditionally dye eggs. You can choose for yourself how and with what you will be doing it. There is always an option to buy various chemical dyes and thermal films that help you quickly and easily color eggs. However, using organic methods is a great natural way to pretty up eggs for Easter! So, what can I use to dye eggs naturally?
The most common natural way is to dye eggs with onion skins. You will not spend a single penny from the family budget to purchase coloring materials. I use onion almost every time I cook, so I already have it.
Here are some tips that can help you to achieve the most stunning result:
- Take eggs out of the fridge in advance. Eggs should be at room temperature when you lower them to boiling water. If they are too cold, then there is a big possibility to crack them.
- After dying eggs with onion peel, they will get a mat color. To make them shiny, just rub dyed egg husk with a small amount of vegetable oil.
- You can use peels from red and yellow onion together to achieve a deep cherry-brown color or use only yellow skins for a red color.
- Use brown eggs if you want to have a richer color.
- White eggs are a better option for showing leaf design.
- Make sure to use nylon stockings that were washed with scent-free detergent.
- Any greens or flowers work to create a contrasting design on dyed eggs. However, my top choices are fresh parsley/cilantro and mint, as they are always in my fridge.
- Be prepared, but pots and saucepans always are dyed and it takes some time to come off. You always can use baking soda to clean them afterward.
- Keep dyed eggs in the fridge until served.
- If you want to color eggs blue, you can try using red cabbage instead of onion peel. To achieve a bright yellow color, use turmeric.
Naturally Dyed Eggs for Easter
Ingredients
- 6-8 eggs
- 1 l water
- 20 g onion skins
- 1 pair of stockings (optional)
- 1 thread (optional)
- Fresh herbs (optional)
Instructions
- The first thing to do is to soak onion skins in water overnight. Cover the acquired amount of onion skins in a pot with water and let boil on high heat. Lower the heat and keep the pot on the stove for 30 minutes simmering. Set it aside and leave it to soak for any time that you can, however, I would highly recommend 12 hours at least.
- Take eggs out of the fridge for them to reach room temperature.
- Put the pot with soaked onion peels on the stove, add eggs and wait until the water boils.
- Cook them for 8 minutes or to desired state or color. Here is the guide to check out boiling time for the yolk consistency.
- When the time passes, remove boiled eggs from the water and let them cool down by submerging them into the ice water.
- For a deeper color, you can store them in the liquid they were boiled in overnight in the fridge.
- To serve, rub some olive or coconut oil to get them shiny and beautiful.
Optional Method for Dyed Easter Eggs with Patterns:
- Cut stockings into squares.
- With a drop of water stick leaves of herbs to the egg shelf, wrap each egg carefully in a stocking square, and tie it (use a thread if necessary).
- Add eggs carefully to already boiling water and boil for 8 minutes. Make sure that eggs are fully submerged into water for a better result.
- Let eggs cool down before removing stockings to avoid burning yourself. Use ice water for the purpose and leave eggs to cool down for at least 15 minutes.
Notes
Hope that the article was helpful and you managed to dye eggs the colors that you wanted using natural dyes! As always, I would be grateful for the feedback. Leave comments, questions, and suggestions in the section below.
