Food Colouring

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Maidstone, Kent, UK
Do you ever use food colouring? I don't really like using artificial colours from bottles so I've been experimenting with natural colour. Pink and yellow are easy and blue is also easy with the right ingredient - but I'm defeated by green. All attempts so far come out sludgy browny green. Anyone know how to achieve it?
 
Like you, I'm not keen on using artificial colours so have just not used them. For icing I tend to make vanilla or chocolate vegan 'butter' icing. You got me thinking so I looked up natural food colours and there are a lot around including supermarket own brands.


I've read matcha makes a green food colouring. I assume you have tried mixing your yellow and blue.
 
I too don't like artificial colourings, we have them here, can't remember when I used them. I do however use the red powder I buy from my Indian shop. I use it for the redness in tandoori chicken. $5 lasts about a year.

Russ
 
I use this for tandoori chicken only, nothing else.

food colouring s.jpg


Not a brand name that I would have chosen.
 
Like you, I'm not keen on using artificial colours so have just not used them. For icing I tend to make vanilla or chocolate vegan 'butter' icing. You got me thinking so I looked up natural food colours and there are a lot around including supermarket own brands.


I've read matcha makes a green food colouring. I assume you have tried mixing your yellow and blue.

I tried matcha - its not bright green enough. Stupidly I've not tried yellow & blue mixed! The blue is expensive as it uses butterfly-pea flowers which I can only get rather expensively on-line. So - next time I use the blue, I'll try mixing with yellow (turmeric).
 
Depends on what you're making. If you're baking, Wiltons.com is a good source. I think there's one in London? (The cake pops and cake ball kabobs are cute too.)

For homemade pasta (etc), you can use tomatoes, carrots, lemon, broccoli, spinach, herbs, saffron, etc. (I made the lemon pasta.) There's an excellent flavored pasta chart at reciptips.com under Homemade Pasta.
 
Or try boiling red cabbage and add baking soda to the purple liquid. I saw this on a YouTube video.

I've now discovered an obvious thing. Boiled red cabbage water (no vinegar added) is blue - and it dyes had-boiled eggs beautifully! You can use the cabbage (which stays red) as usual.

Re the green - I tried adding baking soda to the blue liquid but nothing happened. Perhaps the cabbage water needs to be acidulated.
 
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