How to Make Natural Food Coloring

You can use natural items to make your own food coloring.

As anyone with kids can tell you, food coloring can enhance your perception of taste. The bad news is that many food colorings approved by the U.S. contain toxic substance and are actually banned in other countries. The good news is that you can easily color your foods with items in your pantry. All recipes here are based on coloring about 1 cup of white cake icing. To color other items, experiment with amounts of natural dyes until you achieve the color you want.

Things You'll Need

• Beets
• Berries
• Turmeric
• Avocados
• Carrots
• Spirulina
• Chlorella
• A seive

Instructions

1. Add 1 tsp of stale turmeric for yellow. Turmeric is often used to give vegan puddings and tofu scrambles that "eggy" shade. This is a good use for turmeric that's past its prime, since stale turmeric is fairly flavor neutral.

2. Mash the juice from 14 fresh or thawed frozen raspberries directly into the icing using a sieve to create blush or pale pink

3. Mash half a small avocado until creamy paste to get pastel green. Mix this into your icing. The avocado makes your icing thinner, but in a fluffy, pleasant way.

4. Mash the juice from 14 fresh or thawed frozen blueberries and 12 fresh or thawed frozen blackberries directly into the icing for raspberry purple, using a sieve.

5. Experiment and color your world! Other natural sources of color include carrots, beet juice and chlorella.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't forget to taste your food as you color it. Since these natural dyes are also foods in their own right, adding too much can impart their flavor into the icing. You will need to find the right balance between color and neutral flavor.

References

• I Love India: Making Natural Food Coloring

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish