All Natural Food Dye - How to create vivid purple and teal food dye with cabbage

Sprinkles (aka dried coconut dyed with beet and cabbage juice)

It's no secret that we first eat with our eyes and manufactures have long been including chemical food dyes in foods to increase their appeal. There is a long debate about whether or not these dyes are healthy and my opinion is that more research is needed. Different countries have different regulations and some have banned certain food dyes.  I am a minimalist and believe that extra additives are not needed in our diets and I avoid chemical dyes at Happy Belly Design as well with all of my family's foods.

Red cabbage - our natural dye source

As a former pastry student and art teacher - I love color. More so than color I love bright colors. I realized that just because I want to exclude chemical dyes from my diet I could create natural dyes to still add colorful splashes of color. After unsuccessfully removing a stain caused by beets and red cabbage I realized that these were two powerhouses of color.

The above sprinkles are dyed coconut flakes - the top magenta flakes are dyed with beet juice and the purple and teal are from red cabbage. You can juice beets or find pure beet juice in your juice aisle. The red cabbage does need a bit more work because to truly extract its color you must cook it.

I find that about half of a red cabbage yields about 1/4 cup of dye, which is plenty. Chop it up into medium pieces and put in a saucepan with about 1 cup of water. Cover, bring to a boil, and let boil for 2 minutes.

Large chunks of cabbage in water. Remove the white core

Cabbage that has been boiled - notice the color has seeped from the leaves

You will know the cabbage is done when it seeps all of its color into the liquid and looks a little grey.


Once your cabbage is cooked, remove it from the pan and bring it back to a boil. You want to reduce the liquid to a syrup and for me this takes about 10 mins on my stove.




Tada! You have purple dye! You can use this to dye just about anything. To make teal dye, add a tiny pinch of baking soda to the cabbage dye. You're done.

The end result - a brilliant purple dye

Rainbow cupcakes created with the above coconut sprinkles

Save your extra dyes in a covered ice cube tray in the freezer. You can shave off what you need to use.

To create sprinkles, add a few drops to shaved coconut then dry in a low oven for 10 mins. You can use on top of your creations of mix into a cake batter to create my childhood favorite - funfetti.

Natural Purple and Teal Food Dye
1/2 red cabbage
1 cup water
1/8 tsp baking soda
Chop cabbage into medium sized pieces and put into a saucepan with 1 cup of water. Cover and boil for 20 minutes until the color has seeped from the cabbage into the liquid.
Remove the cabbage leaves from the saucepan and reduce the liquid to 1/4 of a cup. It should be a thick syrup.
Use as a purple dye in all of your creations.
To create teal - add a tiny amount of baking soda to the purple dye until desired color is reached
Store frozen in a covered ice cube tray