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Writer's picturerodica godlewski

eggs dyed with natural dyes


We usually only celebrate one Easter, but this year our friends Irina and Iulian invited us, together with Gabi and Romi to celebrate the Romanian Easter as well. This time around the Catholic and the Orthodox Easters are one week apart so I've been dyeing eggs left and right. I did a previous post on how to dye eggs in onion skins (you can find it here https://www.cookingismyinheritance.com/post/easter-eggs-dyed-in-onion-skins-and-some-other-romanian-traditions ). For these pastel eggs though, I used a variety of natural dyes from onion skins to blueberries, turmeric, red beets, red cabbage, spinach & green tea, cherries, and raspberries. While almost all the choices worked out great, I wasn't too keen on the raspberries. The color just didn't do it justice, so I switched the eggs I had in the raspberry dye, back into the blueberry one.

From left to right we have: yellow onion skins, red cherries, red beets, red cabbage, turmeric, raspberry, green tea & spinach, and blueberry.

In the picture bellow, going from top to bottom we have: green tea and spinach, blueberry, red cherry, yellow onion, raspberry, turmeric, red cabbage, and red beets.

I used a mixture of both white and brown eggs. The white eggs as expected turned to lighter pastels and the brown eggs turned to darker pastels. In the picture bellow starting from top top to bottom, left to right we have:

  • dark blue *blueberry (kept in the dye for 30 minutes)

  • light gray *red cherry (kept in the dye for 25 minutes)

  • light purple *raspberry then blueberry (kept in the raspberry dye for 20 minutes then another 7 minutes in the blueberry dye)

  • light blue/turquoise *red cabbage (kept in the dye for 30 minutes)

  • light peach/pink *red beets (kept in the dye for 40 minutes)

  • light green *green tea and spinach (kept in the dye for 35 minutes)

  • light yellow *turmeric (kept in the dye for 10 minutes)

  • light orange/medium peach *yellow onion skins (kept in the dye for 30 minutes)

  • dark gray/brown *blueberry (brown eggs kept in the dye anywhere from 10-20 minutes)

The time you leave the eggs in the dye depends on what shade you are after. I wanted mines pastel and I wanted to create that ombre impression so I kept my eyes on the eggs and took them out from the dye when the desired shade was reached. Obviously, the more you leave them in, the darker the shade gets.





RECIPE

  • 24 eggs, hard boiled, and cooled down (plus if desired)


for the colors:

  • 1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries

  • 1 1/2 cup frozen raspberries

  • 1 1/2 cup frozen cherries

  • 1 cup spinach + 2 tablespoons green tea powder

  • 4 tbs turmeric

  • 6 red cabbage leaves

  • 2 big red beets, halved

  • 10 yellow onion skins

to stabilize the color:

  • 1 tablespoon of salt for every color

  • 1 tablespoon of vinegar for every color

equipment:

  • 8 Ball Mason jars

  • paper towel to wipe the eggs when they are taken out of the dye

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Place each of the ingredients in a different saucepan (the only ones that are combined are the spinach and green tea). Add a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of vinegar to each and boil on medium heat for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the liquid and place each dye in an individual jar. Allow for the dyes to come to room temperature and then place the desired amount of eggs in each jar (leave the eggs in the dyes according to how light or dark you want them to be).

  3. Take the eggs out from the dyes and wipe dry with paper towel.







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