A few days before the Orthodox Easter, many families start their traditional Easter baking and dying of eggs. The eggs are dyed in various colours, red being the most commonly used colour.  I wanted to try a few new colours other than the usual red eggs using food as the colouring.  Brown onion skins always work very well but you can also use spices and vegetables to create other shades.  I tested ground turmeric for yellow eggs, red cabbage for blue eggs and the result was beautiful!

For red eggs:

Boil the onion skins in plenty of water (enough to completely cover the eggs later on) for about 30 minutes with a dash of white vinegar (that’s about 1 teaspoon).  The vinegar helps the colour adhere to the egg shells.  Next add your eggs to the pot and nestle them snugly in between and underneath the onion skins and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove the pot from the heat.  Let the eggs soak in the onion skin water for a few hours or overnight for a more intense colour. 

For yellow eggs:

Make a batch of yellow turmeric water using ordinary store bought ground turmeric.  Cook as above with a dash of vinegar to make the coloured water and then boil the eggs in the same way.  The solutions colours the eggs very quickly after soaking.

For blue eggs:

Cook red cabbage leaves in water and a dash of vinegar for 30 minutes.  Cook the eggs as per above.  The eggs initially do not take to the colour at all.  After a few hours of leaving them in the purple coloured liquid the eggs eventually became speckled with light blue dots.  Leave them overnight for a darker blue shade.  This method tokes the longest to achieve the colour.

Some notes to consider:

• Use white free-range organic eggs. If you use brown eggs, the shades may vary.

• If you’re living in a warm climate, transfer the soaking eggs to the refrigerator as soon as the liquid has cooled down. The eggs will continue to absorb the colour regardless of whether they are in the refrigerator or outside.

Once the eggs have been coloured to your liking, remove them from the coloured liquid and pat dry with a paper towel, then store them in the original egg containers until required. For a little traditional fun, break the beautifully coloured eggs with someone else’s’ egg-the egg that doesn’t get cracked is the winner!  Some people get very competitive, but it’s all for a bit of fun and children usually love this game.