These Colored Deviled Eggs are a fun twist on the classic recipe using natural food dyes to make them bright spring colors like pink, purple, yellow, and blue. It’s a vibrant Southern recipe that’s easy to make in advance as an appetizer or side dish for entertaining or Easter brunch.
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Have you ever made Colored Deviled Eggs? If not, you’re in for a festive treat that will be so impressive on your holiday table. And better yet, I teach you how to dye them naturally using easy to find ingredients that you may already have at home (no need to worry about harmful chemicals).
A couple of years ago, I experimented with what was already in my fridge and pantry to dye my eggs using natural ingredients. It was so easy and worked like a charm! After dying regular hard-boiled eggs, I decided to then turn them into the Southern classic deviled eggs, and my goodness, they are stunning!
Ever since they’ve been a staple on my holiday table and a recipe my friends and family look forward to. I’ve made so many versions of deviled eggs being from the South (even Christmas Tree Deviled Eggs), but these by far are my most festive version that really complete any tablescape.
Serve them alongside my Slow Cooker Pineapple Brown Sugar Ham and Baked Mac and Cheese and I promise you will make a meal to remember.
Shortcuts
- Make the dyed egg halves and filling a day in advance. It’s so easy to prep ahead, then just fill the eggs right before serving.
- If you’re in a time crunch, you can buy already hard boiled eggs at the store and dye those.
- Look at the ingredients you already have in your fridge before shopping, you may have some already at home!
Ingredients
Scroll down to printable recipe for exact ingredient quantities.
- Grape juice: Makes a beautiful deep purple color.
- Pickled beet juice: Adds that pop of bright pink, my favorite!
- Fresh blackberries: Makes a nice deep gray color.
- Frozen blueberries: Transforms the white into a slate blue.
- Powdered turmeric: A sunshine yellow that’s so bright!
How to make Colored Deviled Eggs
Scroll down to the bottom for the printable recipe with detailed instructions.
Step 1: Prepare the dyes
- Put the blueberries, blackberries, and turmeric in three separate small pans.
- Add 1 ½ cups water to the pans and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn off the heat and let the pans stand for 10 minutes.
- Strain the berries through a metal sieve. Don't throw out the berries! Save them for your breakfast cereal or top your ice cream with them. I strained the turmeric mixture with a very fine mesh sieve.
- No prep for bottled grape juice or pickled beet juice.
Step 2: Separate them into cups
- Place 1 cup of strained berry juice, grape juice, and strained turmeric liquid in small fruit jars or cups.
- Add 1 to 2 teaspoons white or cider vinegar and gently drop in peeled, boiled eggs. The vinegar helps the egg absorb the color.
- The pickled beet juice doesn't need any vinegar because it already has vinegar in it.
As you can see, the colors vary depending on how long you leave the eggs in the liquid.
- Vibrant, ruby color egg in the right side picture was steeped in pickled beet juice overnight (basically pickled eggs).
- Lighter shades of pink and mauve were left in pickled beet juice for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Lavender egg on the far left in the the left picture came from blackberries
- Blue egg on the right of the right side picture plus at 10:00 o'clock on the left picture came from blueberries.
- Jewel-toned purple egg came from the grape juice.
- All three yellow eggs came from the turmeric, dyed different lengths of time.
- If you’d like, you can easily serve these cut and salted for a delicious snack!
Step 3: Make the filling
- Slice the eggs in half lengthwise with a knife and scoop out yolks in a medium bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork or a potato masher. Add mayonnaise, mustard, and salt. I use my hand mixer at this point to mix it all together because I can't ever get all the lumps out with just a fork.
- Spoon the filling into a zip-top bag or pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. I often just snip the end of the bag with no tip and just pipe it onto the eggs straight from the bag.
- You can also just spoon the filling into the eggs.
How to Boil the Perfect Hard Boiled Egg
Instant Pot Method:
- I cooked these eggs in the Instant Pot using the 4-5-5 method. This is my favorite method because the shells just roll off. Seriously!
- Here's my step by step directions on How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs in the Instant pot.
- If your pressure cooker or Instant Pot didn't come with a trivet, you will need one for hard cooked eggs.
- You don't have to purchase one that stacks eggs. I simply stack an entire dozen eggs on top of each other.
Stovetop Method:
- Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat.
- Gently lower the cold eggs in the pan with a slotted spoon or tongs; partially cover the pan with a lid. Boil the eggs for 12 minutes with water at a rolling boil.
- Carefully transfer the eggs into a large bowl of ice water for at least 5 minutes.
- Tap the eggs on the large side on the counter roll around. Peel the eggs under running water.
Pro Tips
- The longer you dye your eggs, the more vibrant in color they will be. Make sure you submerge them into the liquid fully for even coverage.
- Don’t over-boil the eggs or the yolks will be green inside and also very tough. Make sure to cool the eggs in ice water to help the shell release.
- For easy removal of the egg shell, peel the eggs under running water to help them release smoothly.
- When making deviled egg filling, use a hand mixer to make the filling light, airy and smooth.
Storage
Store any leftover eggs in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I like to let them sit out to take the chill off before enjoying the leftovers.
They also make a great egg salad if you chop them up, filling and all, and spread them on toast!
When it comes to prepping the eggs in advance, you can easily boil the eggs and also make the deviled egg filling. Store separately in the fridge for up to a day.
FAQ's
Make sure you submerge them for enough time to color them deeply, different dyes will take different amounts of time. And vinegar is a key ingredient for dying them correctly as well.
Always cold, make sure you cook them first, then cool them completely before dying them.
Yes, of course! This is an easy way to make the prep time faster.
More Easy Egg Recipes
- How to make Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
- The Best Simple Egg Salad Sandwich
- Tri Color Quinoa Tomato Corn Salad
- Corned Beef and Roasted Potato Hash with Shirred Eggs
Leave a comment below the printable recipe if you have questions or tell me how you liked the recipe. Don't forget to rate it 5 stars if you love it!
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Nutrition analysis on GritsAndGouda.com recipes are mostly calculated on an online nutrition calculator. I am not a dietitian and nutritional information is an estimate and can vary based on products used.
Colored Deviled Eggs (With Natural Dyes)
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Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup blackberries fresh or frozen
- 1 cup blueberries fresh or frozen
- 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
- 1 cup grape juice
- 1 cup pickled beet juice
- 4 teaspoons vinegar, divided
Filling
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- 1 ½ teaspoons yellow mustard
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cook eggs to make hard cooked eggs using Instant Pot or boiling in pan on stovetop method. I used the Instant Pot 4-5-5 method. Place 1 cup water in a 6-quart Instant Pot with trivet in the bottom. Arrange the eggs on the trivet. Close the lid and push the pressure valve to Sealing. Cook at high pressure for 4 minutes and let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes then push the pressure valve to Venting.
- Plunge the eggs into cold ice water. The shells should peel off easily after gently cracking the ends of the eggs.See Notes for stovetop method for boiling eggs.
- Meanwhile, add 1 ½ cups water to three small pans and add blackberries, blueberries and turmeric to each pan. Bring them to a boil, then remove them from the heat and let them stand 10 minutes.
- Strain the blueberries and black berries into a small fruit jar or cup with a fine metal sieve or strainer. Strain the turmeric with a very fine mesh sieve into a fruit jar or cup. Let liquid cool to room temperaturePour grape juice and pickled beet juice in separate jars or cups.
- Add 1 teaspoon vinegar to all the cups except pickled beet juice. It already has vinegar in it. Vinegar helps the egg absorb the color.
- Gently lower the eggs into the cups. Leave the eggs in the cups 10 to 15 minutes or until desired color is achieved. For vibrant, darker colors leave them in overnight but be sure and put in the refrigerator.
- Remove eggs from the cups with a spoon and pat dry on paper towels.
Filling
- Slice the eggs in half lengthwise with a knife and scoop out yolks in a medium bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork or a potato masher. Add mayonnaise, mustard, and salt. I use my hand mixer at this point to mix it all together because I can't ever get all the lumps out with just a fork.
- Spoon the filling into a zip-top bag or pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. I often just snip the end of the bag with no tip and just pipe it onto the eggs straight from the bag. You can also just spoon the filling into the eggs.
Notes
- Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat.
- Gently lower the cold eggs in the pan with a slotted spoon or tongs; partially cover the pan with a lid. Boil the eggs for 12 minutes with water at a rolling boil.
- Carefully transfer the eggs into a large bowl of ice water for at least 5 minutes.
- Tap the eggs on the large side on the counter roll around. Peel the eggs under running water.
Dena
Do the eggs absorb the flavor of the fruit/juice/vegetable/spice? Blueberry flavored eggs don't sound very appetizing. But that's me.
gritsandgouda
That's such a good question. No, the eggs do not take on the flavor of the dyes any more than they take on the vinegar used along with chemical dyes. Since the eggs are not in the dye for a long period of time. If you were to actually make Pickled Eggs, then the flavor might be detected.
Pepo
Carrots, grated not in matchsticks. ;D
gritsandgouda
Oh yay! You had good luck with grated carrot? I can see where that would work better. I was using items I already had in my fridge. That's good to know grated carrots will work better. Thank you for sharing.