My absolute favourite job on Easter morning is adorning my mother’s finest silver tray. At its centre mum’s beloved bottle of creamy liqueur, surrounded by delicate crystal glasses, a picture of celebration and tradition. Beside it rests a basket brimming with brightly coloured boiled eggs, nestled in soft hay, ready to greet our guests.
If you grew up in a European or Middle Eastern household, Easter wasn’t just all about the lamb it was all about the egg! So why the egg?
Once everyone has arrived, the Easter egg-tapping game begins. Each person carefully selects their egg, eyes gleaming with determination, hoping to choose the ultimate champion egg. The competition is fierce, rivalries reignited from years past, but it’s all softened by the joy of our family’s tradition and the roar of my father’s laughter echoing through the room.
The boiled egg represents new life and the resurrection of Jesus. In many cultures, eggs are dyed red to represent Jesus’s blood shed on the cross. My mother prefers to include a few red eggs, while the majority are brightly coloured and bring so much joy. Their colours provide me with the promise of hope, new beginnings, and reaffirms the joy of the resurrection, a beautiful reminder that light always follows darkness.
You can colour your boiled eggs with store-bought dyes, or you can take the natural route, just as my dear friend Lisa and her family have done for generations. Continuing a cherished tradition passed down from their German heritage, they collect red onion skins from local green grocers and boil them with the eggs.
The result is a rich, deep red that no artificial dye could ever replicate, a colour steeped in both beauty and meaning.
Method to naturally colour boiled eggs
Ingredients
- Eggs (your choice of quantity)
- Pick one or more of the below, for each bring 2 cups of water to boil then place lid on pot and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes.
- 2 cups shredded beets = reddish pink on white eggs, maroon on brown eggs
- 2 cups red onion skins = reddish orange on white eggs or red on brown eggs
- 2 cups yellow onion skins = orange on white eggs, rusty red on brown eggs
- 1/4 cup ground turmeric = yellow eggs
- 2 cups chopped purple cabbage & 1/4 cup ground turmeric (two separate soaks) = green eggs
- 2 cups chopped purple cabbage = blue on white eggs, green on brown eggs
- 2 cups blueberries = blue eggs
- 2 cups dried hibiscus flowers = lavender or indigo eggs
- Tablespoon of vinegar for each cup of dye
Prepare the dye baths: (At the same time, boil your eggs to a hard boil)
- Red Cabbage Shred red cabbage and simmer in water with vinegar and salt.
- Turmeric Boil turmeric powder in water.
- Onion Skins: Boil onion skins in water with vinegar.
- Beets: Boil shredded beets in water.
- Blueberries (Blues): Boil blueberries in water.
- Hibiscus flowers (Lavender/Indigo): Boil dried hibiscus flowers in water.
- Coffee or Tea (Browns): Steep coffee or tea in water.
Dye the eggs
Once the dye baths are ready, strain the liquid and add a tablespoon of vinegar per cup of dye liquid. The longer the eggs soak, the deeper the colour.
Remove the eggs from the dye, place back in the egg cartons to allow them cool and dry completely. Once the eggs have dried rub with a little oil to make them shine.