How to make natural food coloring? The answer’s easy. You can make it from scratch in shades of pink, purple, green, and yellow, with no artificial coloring, no preservatives, and no monumental price tag. Just fruits and vegetables.
Knowing how to make natural food coloring from scratch is something we’ve been wanting to do for literally years and years and years. And after trying countless different approaches, we finally we have the DIY natural food coloring recipe we’ve been wanting, seeking, and needing. No artificial colors. No preservatives. And no monumental price tag. Just vegetables and fruits and water.–David Leite
☞ Contents
Natural Food Coloring FAQs
How do natural food dyes compare to store-bought food coloring?
Keep in mind that when mixed into frostings or icing, natural food coloring will create shades of pastels rather than incredibly vibrant and nearly neon hues. But, on the other hand, these all-natural, one-ingredient colors are kinder and gentler to everyone involved. And there’s something to be said for softness, no?
Will I be able to taste the food coloring ingredients in the frosting?
Yes, to some extent, although it should be minimal. The more food coloring you use, the more noticeable the flavor will be. In some cases, this is desirable, such as with blueberries. However, if the food coloring uses an ingredient that may be off-putting to some, start with a small amount and monitor the flavor.
How To Make Natural Food Coloring
Ingredients
For pink food coloring
- 1/4 cup canned beets drained
- 1 teaspoon drained beet juice from the can
For yellow food coloring
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
For purple food coloring
- 1/4 cup blueberries fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw and drain)
- 2 teaspoons water
For green food coloring
- 1 cup spinach fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw and drain)
- 3 tablespoons water plus more as needed
Directions
- Choose your color below and simply follow the instructions below.
Notes
CHOOSE YOUR COLOR
Pink
In a high-speed blender or food processor, mix the beets and juice together until smooth. Strain if desired. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Add 1 teaspoon to icings, frostings, or batter for starters to impart a pink hue. Add more coloring, if necessary.Yellow
In a small saucepan, boil the water and turmeric for 3 to 5 minutes. Allow to fully cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Turmeric can stain, so use a container you don’t mind turning yellow. Add 1 teaspoon to icings, frostings, or batter for starters to impart a yellow hue. Add more coloring, if necessary. [Editor’s Note: Be careful when working with turmeric as it tends to stain whatever it comes in contact with, including countertops and wee fingers.]Purple
In a high-speed blender or food processor, blend the blueberries and water together until smooth. Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the skins from the mix. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Add 1 teaspoon to icings, frostings, or batter for starters to impart a purple hue. Add more coloring, if necessary.Green
If using fresh spinach, in a small saucepan, boil the spinach in enough water to cover for 5 minutes. Drain, discarding the cooking liquid. If using frozen and thawed spinach, skip to the next step. In a high-speed blender or food processor, blend the spinach and water together until completely smooth. If the mixture clumps or stubbornly refuses to blend, add more water as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time. Strain, if desired, and let cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Add 1 teaspoon to icings, frostings or batter for starters to impart a green hue. Add more coloring, if necessary.Show Nutrition
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We’d love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
These instructions for how to make natural food coloring are easy to follow and everything came together quickly, each one taking less than 5 minutes (if you don’t count the half hour to allow some of the mixtures to cool). Our color testers included a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old. They swirled the final colors into bright white vanilla yogurt and and the results were delightful. Each color is a pretty hue—soft green, lemony yellow, light purple, and a pale pink that got the most enthusiastic chorus of “Ooooh!” and “Ahhhh!”
A few notes: Our blender must not be as powerful as some as the mixtures were a bit chunky. So we ended up straining each. It was easy to do and added maybe another 30 seconds to the overall time. We had fresh beets and fresh turmeric in the house, so we used those, grating each finely. The lemon yellow from the fresh turmeric is especially bright and fresh and satisfying. (Be aware! Turmeric REALLY stains. Make sure everyone is wearing an apron when playing with the colors.) We had a great time with this simple recipe and definitely will make these colors again.
With the problems of artificial colorings in our food chain, this natural food coloring recipe was a pleasure to try. For the pink, I believe you can use fresh beets that have been cooked and use the cooking water. For the purple, the total time, including clean up, was just 5 minutes. For the green, I used fresh spinach.
Originally published November 29, 2014
HUNGRY FOR MORE?
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Hi…I have been on a mad hunt for a way to make a natural pink cake for my daughter’s birthday. I’ve been down the beet road without success. The color bakes out! Eek! Such a bummer. Do you have any other suggestions to get a pink color naturally? If you would like to see my failed attempts, please peek at my blog…luckynumber3.com.
I haven’t read all the comments yet, but hasn’t anyone tried Pom juice? Seems like it would be easier and have a better flavor?
Great idea, Brittany, thank you!
Ah, we’d been using the food coloring only in frosting, Amanda. Sorry to hear the color baked out. I’m wondering, what if you simmered some pomegranate juice down to a syrup so as to concentrate the pigment and then stir some of that into the batter?
My blueberry juice seems to be oxidising and becoming brown! Made the colours for use tomorrow and I think it’ll totally be brown by tomorrow morning… 🙁
How did you store your juice, Eunice? If you are having problems with the juice oxidizing, store them in an appropriately sized airtight container filled to the brim with juice. Or you might try freezing them. Or adding a smidgen of lemon juice.
Thank you for the tip! 🙂 I ended up using fake colouring for blue but the others turned up a nice pastel 🙂
Lovely, Eunice!
Do you have any experience with adding the colors to DIY lotions, lip balms, etc? Will the colors when mixed into the body products, stain skin and/or clothes and does it have any smell?
Did you try this in any beauty products, Kimberly? I am wanting to make bath bombs, but wondering if the colouring will ‘go off’ if not used within a few weeks.
Kimberly, we have only tried these natural food colorings in icing for cookies, not in any sort of DIY beauty products. But we like the way you’re thinking and wish you good luck with your experimenting!
Do you mind sharing the frosting recipe that you use?
Hello, Rhonda. These colorings will work with any frosting recipe. Here are just a few.
We tried freezing our two favorite of these colors, the yellow and the pink. The process did not effect the brightess of the coloring one bit. Seems like a great way to use this recipe – portioned out in teaspoons or tablespoons, then into the freezer.
Elizabeth, thanks for weighing in on this. It seems that we now have a way to have great color all year long.
Can these be frozen instead of refrigerated? I would love to make a bunch to have on hand and pull out whenever needed.
Hi Hattie, we didn’t try freezing it during our initial test, but one of our testers is going to make up a batch today and freeze it. Stay tuned, we’ll be back in touch.