Dyeing Eggs with Onion Skins [Red Color The Natural Way]

Why read: This is a step-by-step guide to dyeing eggs with onion skins for Easter to get a rich burgundy color the natural way.  

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Easter is my favorite holiday!

What can be better than celebrating our Savior’s Resurrection, greeting the arrival of spring with a fun outdoor Easter scavenger hunt, reading Easter books with kids, and eating delicious Easter food?

One of my family’s favorite activities for Easter is dyeing eggs.

There are many creative ways to decorate Easter eggs, but I always go with the Armenian way that comes from my childhood – dyeing eggs with onion skins and flower petals.

Result – red Easter eggs with different patterns on them.

The cross pattern is the prettiest and is perfect for Easter, IMHO. Don’t you agree?

Related: 15+ Healthy Easter Treats Your Family Will Love

Dyeing Eggs With Onion Skins

So this Easter, how about you try adding a unique twist to your egg dyeing activities too?

Onionskin dyeing is a simple and fun way to make beautiful red eggs for the holiday.

This technique involves boiling eggs in an onion skin dye bath, which gives them an eye-catching maroon hue.

In short, if you want to naturally achieve a rich red or burgundy color when dyeing Easter eggs follow this step-by-step guide for instructions and important tips.

And because this method is natural, you and your family can feast on the eggs without having concerns about any chemicals getting into your and your children’s body.

Even if you dye the eggs plainly in red onion skins, see the picture below for how beautiful they’ll look. These are brown eggs naturally dyed with onion skins.

By the way, tarragon perfectly compliments both the look and taste of the eggs!

Decorating Onion Dyed Eggs With Flower Petals

To make things even more interesting you can create different imprints on the eggs using the cheesecloth or nylon stocking method.

This is how most Armenians dye eggs for Armenian Easter. Russians also love this method and use it to color eggs for Russian Easter.

The idea behind the cheesecloth or nylon stocking method is that you find a beautiful flower or herb petals and create an imprint of those on the eggs.

To achieve this, you stick the herbs and flowers to a wet egg, put the egg in a cheesecloth, and tie it tightly with a thread.

Then you put the eggs in the onion skin dye bath and boil.

After the dying process is over you remove the cheesecloth or stocking as well as the flower petals.

And what you get is a burgundy egg with an imprint of the beautiful flower petal on it.

For the cross pattern, I use grass or cilantro stems.

This makes it a super fun family Easter activity kids love participating in!

Go together to hunt the prettiest flower petals or grass stems in the backyard or a park.

And then let kids stick the petals and grass stems onto the eggs.

The beauty of this method is that there is no limit to your creativity and the patterns you want to achieve!

Instead of herbs or flowers, you can simply use paper. Cut paper into small hearts, stars, dots – anything you can imagine – stick onto the eggs, and viola!

Let your kids go wild with their creativity and you’ll be amazed at how pretty the final result will turn out! These eggs will become a great addition to an Easter charcuterie board.

There are a couple of tricks for achieving the best result though so follow instructions carefully.

Ingredients Needed For Dyeing Easter Eggs With Onion Skins

When dyeing eggs with onion skins, you’ll need several ingredients and basic kitchen equipment.

First, you’ll need a large quantity of red onion skins.

Ideally, you’d start collecting red onion skins 1-2 weeks before Easter.

The more the richer the color!

Of course, you’ll also need eggs.

Both white or brown eggs would do. You’ll need more onion peels for white eggs to color well, and white eggs will turn out brighter red.

If you decide to decorate with herbs and petals using white eggs will make the contrast higher.

The number of eggs depends on your family size.

I always dye 1 egg per person and add a couple extra in case someone wants more than one.

Here’s the list of all the ingredients you’ll need for coloring eggs with onion skins:

• eggs (preferably white)
• red onion skins (skins of 1 onion per 2 eggs)
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• flower petals, herbs or grass for decorating (optional)
• food grade unbleached cheesecloth or nylon stocking (optional)

Finally, you’ll need a pot to boil the eggs in the onion peel dye bath and a spoon for stirring it.

Step-by-step Instructions For Dyeing Eggs With Onion Skins

1. Start collecting red onion skins 1-2 weeks before the big celebration. Or just swing by your local grocery store and ask if you can snag a few. You’ll need peels of 1 onion per 2 eggs.
2. Place the onion skins in a large pot of cold water. Add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar and leave for a few hours or overnight for richer color.
3. After soaking bring the onion skins to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool.
4. If you want to avoid cracked eggs, give them a 30-minute salt bath before dyeing.
5. Now it’s time for some creative decorating! Cut the cheesecloth or nylon stocking into 5-inch squares. Wet the eggs for better sticking or just take them out of the salt water one by one and start decorating. You can use herbs, flower petals, grass stems, etc. Stick a couple of herbs or flower petals on each egg. Then wrap the egg gently but tightly in the cheesecloth or nylon stocking and tie it with a thread at the end (be careful so that you don’t break the eggs!).
6. Carefully submerge eggs in the onion skin dye bath and boil for 20 minutes.
7. Allow to cool then remove cheesecloth and flowers. Pat the eggs dry with a paper towel. If you’d like to add a nice shine to your eggs, rub them with a little oil (any oil would do).

One Last Thing

This year, how about having a natural dye Easter?

And you don’t have to limit yourself to only red onion skins. Feel free to experiment with red cabbage, turmeric, yellow onion skins, etc. – to get different shades and colors. Naturally dyed eggs will be a great addition to an Easter bunny charcuterie board!

I’m sure you and your kids will have lots of fun.

The way I did when I was little 🙂 

Your Turn 

Is dyeing eggs with onion skins something you do for Easter? Please share your experience with us in the comments!

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