How to Make Natural Food Coloring

How to Make Natural Food Coloring

Today, I am sharing How to Make Natural Food Coloring with just a few simple ingredients that you can find in your pantry or at your local grocery store.

All-Natural Food Coloring Ingredients

These homemade food colorings are the perfect pantry staple for the Traditional Foods Kitchen because they are made from 100% natural ingredients, including fruits, veggies, and spices.

And the nice thing about making natural food colorings is that the process is very easy and literally takes just minutes.

What Natural Food Colors Can We Make?

In this video, I keep things very simple so you can make these natural food colors with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry or can easily get from your grocery store. I also use equipment that is found in most kitchens. The colors we’ll make include yellow, purple, red (pink), green, and blue.

What Ingredients Will I need?

The ingredients that you’ll need to make all these colors are simple. Gather up a can of beets, a bit of the spice turmeric, fresh spinach, frozen blueberries, and red cabbage. And the only other thing you’ll need is a pinch of baking soda. (See my printable recipe later in this blog post for the full list of steps.)

Creating Yellow, Purple, Red, and Green

Once you gather up your ingredients, the next steps are simple. I show you how to make each of these colors, step-by-step, in my How to Make Natural Food Coloring video. Here’s a short overview of the process:

• Yellow – Add a bit of water to the turmeric and warm it gently on the stove until all the spice dissolves.
• Purple – Whirl your frozen blueberries in a blender and then strain out the solids.
• Red – Whirl your beets and beet juice in a blender and then strain out the solids.
• Green – Simmer your spinach in a bit of water to soften, whirl away in a blender, and simply strain out the solids as you did with the beets and blueberries.

But What About Creating Blue?

Blue is easy to make, but it just takes an extra step. You’ll simmer your red cabbage in water until it’s soft. Once softened, you’ll strain off the red cabbage and find that you’re left with a lovely lavender shade. But don’t be fooled. That lovely lavender can also be used as a purple food coloring because it can easily turn into other colors when exposed to certain ingredients.

The good news is that’s how we can turn lavender into blue. A pinch of baking soda added to that lovely lavender liquid will produce a deep blue food coloring.

Where Is the Orange Food Coloring?

I didn’t cover how to make orange food coloring in the video because I wanted to keep things very simple. But you can make orange. It just takes a more specialized ingredient or a piece of equipment that not every kitchen has.

First, the easiest way to make orange is to use freeze-dried carrots. Take a handful, puree them with some water, and then strain out the solids. Voilà…you have orange! Note that dehydrated carrots can work too, but the orange color is not as vibrant.

How About Fresh Carrots to Make Orange?

Now, if you would prefer to create the orange color with fresh carrots, you will get your best color if you use a juicer to obtain the carrot juice. That juice will now be your orange food coloring.

Another option is to use a high-speed blender such as a Vita-Mix to puree fresh carrots with the tiniest bit of water. After you strain out the solids, you will have orange.

Experiment with Mixing Food Colors

But what about just mixing our natural red food coloring with our yellow one? Great question! This may or may now work with the homemade colors that you’ve created, so you will have to experiment.

Turmeric can be a bit unpredictable when mixed with other ingredients, and because of its variable nature, you are not always guaranteed a strong orange color if you mix it with a color made from beets or other red-pigmented fruit or veggie. But it’s certainly worth a try!

More Baking Basics Videos and Recipes

Now that you’ve learned How to Make Natural Food Coloring, be sure to check out the other videos in my Baking Basics series:

• How to Make Homemade Vanilla Bean Extract – A Perpetual Vanilla Extract Recipe
• How to Make Evaporated Milk
• How to Make Condensed Milk

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Favorite food coloring supplies:

• 2-Ounce Glass Bottles
• Small Stainless Steel Saucepan
• Small Blender
• Mesh Strainer