Pages

April 4, 2011

Save your onion skins!

I have been saving my onion skins. Lately, we've been having a lot of onions and mushrooms sauteed with olive oil. So good. If you don't eat a lot of onions, you could go to the grocers and fill a bag with skins and a couple of onions...It makes the most beautiful deep red natural egg coloring! First, I place all the onion skins in the pot, then the eggs and cover with cold water and a little vinegar. I bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat to medium for 10 minutes, the eggs will be hard-boiled...I like to leave them in the pot for a while longer, so they get a deeper red. Much better than food coloring you buy at the store! I'm trying to avoid all fake stuff... I took the photo above 3 years ago when I first tried it. A bit blotchy, but I love it, the eggs look even better if you rub a cloth with a dab of oil on it...shiny. And, oh, yes, scrumptious when you open them and add a pinch of salt.

6 comments:

Peacocks and Sunflowers said...

Marfa, does this wonderful deep red dye come from ordinary yellow onion skins?? amazing! I'll start saving, only a few weeks left... and what happens when you boil red onion skins, I wonder?

Martha said...

Yes...you can use both yellow and the purplish red onion skins to make a deep red!

heather west said...

That is so cool. Never heard of it. Thanks for the tip!

Jim said...

The color look so much better with the onion skins than with the dye!

Adina said...

Gongratulations! It's the traditional way to color the eggs here in Romania. You may also use red onion-I don't know if there's another word for it in english! You can also use beetroot.

Peacocks and Sunflowers said...

Christ is risen! I used red onions and they came out a beautiful dark brownish red. But the brownish colour might have more to do with the fact that they were brown eggs to start with ;) So simple - I'll be doing this in years to come. Thanks Marfa!