Natural Food Coloring made with Red Cabbage

((Artificial Food Coloring bought at the store in little bottles are sometimes bothersome. Not only for the price, but because of all those extra chemicals. Sure there are natural dyes in bottles now a days, but there is a simpler and cheaper way to make some colors using Red Cabbage! Try these Natural Food Coloring shades out with your baking!

We‘ll be making Dark Blue, Light Blue, Dark Purple, Light Purple, and Pink.))

**Easy Difficulty**
Serves… um. WHOO! FOOD COLOR!


A Half to a Whole Red Cabbage, shredded
6 Cups / 1.5 L Water
A few drops of Lime Juice or White Vinegar
A few pinches of Baking SODA (Not Powder)


1.) First, in a pot on the stove set at medium high heat, pour in all the Water and Red Cabbage. Bring to a boil to release the beautiful purple color. Once the color is released, you can turn off the heat and let the water sit and cool.

2.) Once the water is cool to the touch, strain out the cooked Cabbage leaves and discard. Your Cabbage Broth should be dark Purple. If you wanted Purple for your Cooking, Congratz! You’re done! Use this water to replace regular water in your baking, and it’ll give a nice purple tint to your pastries. For a lighter shade of purple, dilute the Broth with more water. For a darker Purple, place liquid back into the pot and reduce on medium heat to desired shade.

3.) If you wanted Pink, start to slowly mix the Red Cabbage Broth and slow add in several drops of Lime Juice or White Vinegar. Stir in between drops and wait for the Chemical reaction to happen. By adding Acidic Ingredients to the Red Cabbage Broth, you make a beautiful pink. Once the Pink is to your liking, then stop, and use it in your cooking, but be sure to take the citrus taste into account. Milky pastries probably won’t be that great with it.

4.) If you wanted a Blue Food Coloring, take your Purple Cabbage Broth, and start to stir in a few pinches of Baking Soda. The Base of the Baking Soda will turn the Purple into Blue. You can add more water to dilute the tint for a lighter Blue. For a darker Blue, heat the liquid back up in the pot and reduce the liquid down to concentrate the purple color, then add in more Baking Soda a little a time. Enjoy Blue food! Just make sure none of the other ingredients used in your recipes are acidic. Any Acid from Citrus or Vinegar will turn your Blue Dye, back into Purple Dye.


Extra Info: So, one of my Arizona peeps,  Ouiji , asked me about Natural Food Coloring in one of my “Ask a Chef” blog posts, and I answered his question there, but I felt this would be a great Entry to add to my Gallery! And, it would help other home cooks, and aspiring Chefs out there see that you can use Science to help you cook!

Chemistry can be frustrating at times, and I have to admit, this method of Food Coloring can get frustrating trying to get the right shade down too. However, with practice and patience, you can take a simple Red Cabbage and make a wide range of Shades.

The reason why this works is because Red Cabbage has a pigment molecule called Anthocyanin (A Flavin). Highly acidic solutions on the pH scale will turn the Anthocyanin into a red color. Acids donate Hydrogen Ions to the solution, which effect the Anthocyanin. Very Basic solutions on the pH scale will turn the Anthocyanin Green by accepting the Hydrogen Ions instead.

The reason why we get Blue Food Coloring is because Baking Soda is enough of a Basic to alter the color of the Anthocyanin just enough to lean towards getting a blue pigment, and not all the way Green. We don’t want to alter the flavour too much anyways. Red Cabbage has a mild, earthy taste. Too much Base, and well, things get bad. AND DANGERIOUS. XD Too much Acid too, but for Food purposes, no food will get to either extremes on the pH scale. Happy….um…. Coloring?