How to Dye Vibrant Easter Eggs with All-Natural Dye

I have never dyed Easter eggs that were this vibrant before! All-natural dye is definitely the way to go for your favorite Easter tradition. Sure, the process is a bit longer than a store-bought kit but it is so worth it to have all-natural ingredients and no artificial dyes. Plus, it is just FUN to see what nature can do.

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Hard-Boiled Eggs Perfect Every Time with this Recipe

I grew up eating hard boiled eggs and it seems like everyone you ask has a different way to make them. I could NEVER remember what the best way to make them was until now. My husband swears by this method and I haven’t gone wrong with it yet! So here’s the secret recipe to have perfect hard boiled eggs every time:

Get your eggs out of the fridge so they can get close to room temperature before you cook them. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Fill it just enough so the eggs will be covered when you add them. Add the eggs with a slotted spoon. Keeping the eggs at room temperature will help keep them from cracking when you add them to the boiling water. Boil for 15 minutes. I always set a timer because I’ll forget to take them out at the right time.

When the eggs are done boiling put them in a bowl with cold water and ice to stop the cooking process. Keep them in the ice bath for about 10 minutes and then your perfect hard boiled eggs are ready to peel or in this case, to dye with all-natural dye!

Preparing the Fruits & Veggies for Dyes

Chop the red cabbage and beets into small pieces. Put two cups of each into separate pots. Add 2 cups of water and 1 Tbsp of vinegar to each pot. In a 3rd pot, combine 2 Tbsp turmeric, 1 Tbsp vinegar, and 2 cups of water. In a 4th pot, combine frozen blueberries, 1 Tbsp vinegar, and 2 cups of water. Beware, the turmeric smell is very strong! If you want to learn more about growing your own turmeric check out this post about planting turmeric in raised garden beds that Lisa wrote. I haven’t ventured into this quite yet but it is definitely on my list.

Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat down to medium-low, or low enough to allow the mixture to JUST bowl. Cover all of the pots so your liquid does not evaporate out. I may or may not have made this mistake with one or two of my all-natural dye mixtures (blueberries & cabbage 😂). Silly silly me! I don’t know what I was thinking but thank goodness I had some extra ingredients so I just tried again and covered my pots the second time. For the blueberries, I just added some more water and brought it back to a boil using the same blueberries.

While the mixtures are boiling, combine grape juice and 1 tbsp of vinegar in a jar or cup. Set aside until the other mixtures are ready. I like using pint sized jars like this. It’s nice to be able to cover with the lid while they’re soaking so there are no spills.

Include your Kids in the Cooking!

I love being in the kitchen with my daughter. Everytime I step back and let her independently complete steps in our cooking or baking processes, it builds her confidence and her skills! Baking and cooking at home are the perfect practical life activities for any kid. It does take a lot of patience sometimes from the supervisor! It takes a lot of will power not to take over or do it “the right way.” Trust me, it is worth all the tiny mistakes and messes they make to build their confidence and future cooking skills! When you’re raising independent kids, you’ve got to be open to some messy learning!

Strain your Dyes and Color those Eggs!

Strain the all-natural dyes separately and pour them into jars. Add two hard-boiled eggs to each jar and let them sit for 1 1/2-2 hours. I took one egg out of each jar after about 2 hours and then left the other one in for another hour to test the colors. I did not notice a difference in the color leaving them in longer so 1 1/2-2 hours is good!

After we finished naturally dying our eggs we had to continue this little experiment and see if the dye worked it’s way into the egg and some of them did! Don’t they look so cool? We made these a little too far in advance to use for Easter morning but they made perfect snacks and an addition to our salad that evening. As an added bonus, peeling eggs is also a great practical life activity for your kids! Even if it gets a little messy for your liking, your kids will have fun. They might even try a hard boiled egg for the first time since they had such a big hand in making them. I’ll add that we didn’t really notice a taste difference in the eggs, which was surprising.

Thanks for checking out my All-Natural Easter Egg Dye post! If you give this a try let me know in the comments or tag us on Instagram @homelyhens or @sam.thatsme.