By: Shelley Long
I’ve spent the past 7 Easters with my partner’s family while I was living in Ontario, and I’ve picked up on a tradition that I would like to share with you all. On Good Friday, we would decorate hard boiled eggs and on Sunday, we would hide them outdoors in the yard and the children would find them. When the egg hunt was over, my mother in-law would use the Easter eggs to make deviled eggs for dinner. While this year’s Easter will not involve large family gatherings outside the household, I think this will still be a fun activity to do if you have children within your household. No children? This is an extremely satisfying and FUN activity for adults as well! I’ve tailored this year’s egg decorating tradition by using all natural dyes instead of synthetic dyes. I’ve used red cabbage to make blue eggs, turmeric to make orange and I intended the beets to make pink eggs but what I got was brown eggs. They looked just like the regular brown eggs you buy in the grocery store. I’m not sure why this happened, but my best guess is that some of the dirt on the beets turned the dye brown. So on a whim, I decided to experiment with the dyed brown eggs and I dipped them in the turmeric dye and then I returned them to the beet dye. I then added some red cabbage dye to the beet dye and let the eggs sit for an extra 30 minutes. The result was a beautiful olive green colour! You can experiment with a variety of plant based foods to create dye. Try spinach for green and onions peels for yellow.
Below is the ingredients and method I used to make the dyed eggs, and my deviled egg recipe:
Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs:
Materials:
6 white eggs
4 cups of red cabbage ( blue dye)
4 cups of beets – (pink dye – wash off all dirt or you’ll get brown)
2 tablespoons of turmeric (yellow/orange dye)
Vinegar
Pressed flowers ( or herbs in your fridge)
Cheese cloth
Medium – large saucepans
Method:
- Hard boil the eggs. Set aside
- Fill pot with water and add 2 tablespoons of vinegar
- Add ONE plant base to pot such as beets, red cabbage, turmeric
- Bring to rolling boil, reduce to simmer for 30-45 mins or until desired colour.
- Strain the plants from the dye
- Add hard boiled eggs to the pot of dye and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until desired colour.
For pressed flower/plant or fresh herb imprint:
- Place pressed flower/plant or fresh herb on the egg
- Carefully wrap egg with a thin layer of cheesecloth. Tie the cheese cloth tightly around the egg, holding the flower/plant/herb in place.
- Add hard boiled eggs to the pot of dye and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until desired colour.
Mix all 3 dyes together to make olive coloured eggs!
Shelley’s Deviled Eggs:
Ingredients
6 eggs
6 strips of bacon
¼ cup mayo plus 1 tablespoon
Paprika
Fresh parsley
Cajun spice ( for added heat – optional)
Salt and Pepper
- Peel egg shells and cut eggs in half with a shape knife.
- Scoop out the yolks and add to a clean mixing boil. Set egg whites aside
- Mix mayo with the yolks
- Finely chop the bacon and add most of the bacon to yolk and mayo mixture. Set some aside for garnish
- Add a dash or paprika, cajun spice, salt, pepper and fresh parsley. Mix well
- Add yolk mixture to a pastry bag and fill the hollowed egg whites with mixture OR if you don’t have a pastry bag – use a ziplock bag and cut the corner for the hole.
- Garnish with chopped parsley, chopped bacon and paprika
