Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

A fun thing to try over the Easter days is to dye some eggs using things you have around the kitchen. Add some vinegar and salt to make sure the colours stick and get ready with plenty of recipes to use up hard boiled eggs when you have finished using them for decorating or egg rolling.

I've used red cabbage, beetroot, turmeric, onion skins, spinach and coffee powder in the past and depending on how long you leave the egg in the solution you get pale or darker shades of a colour.

 For each colour put 4 cups of water in a pan and add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of salt. Add the colouring ingredient according to the list below and bring to the boil. Use a spoon to add an egg and boil for 10 minutes to get a hard boiled egg. If you want a deeper colour, take the pan off the heat and leave the egg submerged in the solution for 15 minutes or more.

Here's the amounts you need for colouring:-

red cabbage 1 cup; beetroot 1 cup; spinach 2 cups; onion skins 1 cup; turmeric 2 tbsp; coffee 2 tbsp

Good luck and don't be surprised if your red cabbage turns the egg blue !