Friday 3 April 2015

Decorated Easter Eggs using Natural Dyes & Leaves


How to make simple decorated eggs for Easter


You will need:

  • some ordinary fresh eggs, preferably white, though I expect you'll just get deeper colours using brown eggs
  • a selection of leaves from the garden or kitchen. I used Coriander, Lemon Balm and Ivy. Just use good shapes of a suitable size
  • an old pair of tights
  • some elastic/rubber bands
  • a bag of onions or two. I used red onions and white onions
  • a little olive oil (any edible oil will do)

Rub off or peel the skins off a bag of onions and place in a pan of water. I kept the red onion & white onion skins separate in two pans as they gave different tones. In the photograph the paler brown is from white eggs boiled in the red onion skins and the redder brown is from white eggs boiled in the white onion skins. The more skins the stronger the colour.

Bring the pans of water to the boil.

Meanwhile lay a leaf or two against an egg and use a 3 inch section cut from a pair of tights to hold it in place. Use a rubber/elastic band at the back of the egg (opposite from the leaf) to hold the tights & leaves in place.

Place the eggs in the pans with the onion skins and boil for 12 minutes.

Run the eggs under a cold tap and then remove the tights and the leaves to reveal your decorated egg.

If you want them to be shiny then paint some oil on with a brush.

Then arrange them nicely in a basket.

Later you can use the boiled eggs in a salad as usual!