24 Mar Homemade Natural Food colours

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Last Updated on March 24, 2024 by blessmyfoodbypayal

Homemade Natural Food colours with step wise pictorial and video method.

Food colours, as we all know, enhance the appearance of food, create contrast, add fun, indicate flavors and contribute to making it more enjoyable.

The concept of colouring the food is not a modern concept but it has its roots way back to Arabs and medieval Europeans who used to color their food for both medicinal and aesthetic reasons.

They used to rely more on minerals and plants like saffron and spinach for colors.

Even when the Mughal Empire arrived, Begum Nur Jahan, known for her great taste, added vibrant colors to dishes like rainbow yogurt.

When the Mughal Era was over & European colonizers expanded in India by 19th century, they initiated the range of synthetic dyes to colour the food.

Now a days, there’s a variety of food colours available in the market but there’s every possibility that they may contain chemicals and preservatives. Most of the people, especially mothers are hesitant in using these colours because most of the times, the colour needs to be used to make the good attractive for her kids. There is a growing trend towards natural food colorings due to health concerns associated with synthetic ones.

To come out of such a perplexed situation, here we have come up with the natural food colours, made using vegetables only.

We are using carrots, cabbage, beetroot, turmeric and spinach to make respective colours.

FAQ’s

HOW TO STORE HOMEMADE GOOD COLOURS ?

These natural food colours can be stored in clean glass bottles in refrigerator.

FOR HOW LONG THESE FOOD COLOURS CAN BE STORED ?

These homemade natural food colours can be stored anytime between 2 to 3 months.

CAN I USE THESE COLOURS IN BOTH SWEETS & SAVOURY DISHES?

Absolutely yes. Be it cake, cream or any sweet dish, feel free to use these colours.

And don’t hesitate in using them in savoury dishes as well.

If it is doubting you that the food colour has sugar so how it is suitable for savoury dishes, then please note that to colour any food, only few drops of colour is needed & as such there will be no impact of sweetness in your savoury dishes.

HOW MUCH COLOUR DO I NEED TO ADD ?

There’s no strick criteria to it. It all depends on the fact that how deep the colour you want in your food. So start from minimal and increase the quantity as per your requirement.

WILL I GET THE VEGETABLES TASTE & SMELL IN MT FOOD?

Not at all, the addition of sugar and vanilla essence has naturalized the taste & smell of vegetables. Hence they are much needed & not to be skipped.

WHY LEMON JUICE IS ADDED?

Lemon juice prevents the crystallization of sugar, hence necessary.

STEP WISE PICTORIAL RECIPE OF HOMEMADE NATURAL FOOD COLOURS

MAKING OF GREEN COLOUR

Take washed spinach leaves and put them into water. Quantity of every ingredient is given in the recipe card below.

Boil 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let cool completely.

Put in a blender jar, alongwith its water and blend to a fine puree.

Sieve through a fine masher.

Pour the extracted juice in a sauce pan.

Also add sugar.

Boil on high heat while stirring occasionally.

A foam will be seen forming over the top layer. Remove it as much as you can.

When the syrup reduces and appears like bubbles, check the consistency by taking a drop out and pulling apart between your forefinger and thumb. It should be one string consistency.

Add lemon juice and just one boil.

Switch off the heat and add vanilla essence. Mix.

Sieve in a bowl.

Leave to cool completely and thereafter fill in a bottle. This is the green. food colour.

MAKING OF ORANGE COLOUR

Peel and wash Carrots. Chop the carrot into small pieces and put them in blender jar. Also add water.

Give them a good blend to make a fine puree.

Sieve the puree to separate carrot juice.

Pour this carrot juice in a sauce pan. Also add sugar.

Next process is similar. Boil, remove the froth, one string consistency, addition of lemon juice and vanilla essence.

Sieve in a bowl. Leave to cool completely. This is the orange food colour.

MAKING OF PURPLE COLOUR

Roughly chop the purple cabbage.

Wash and put in a grinder jar. Also add water.

Make a fine puree out of it.

Sieve through a fine masher.

Pour the cabbage juice in a sauce pan. Add sugar.

Next process is similar to making of green colour. Remove the froth, boil till one string consistency is reached, add lemon juice and vanilla essence.

Then divide the liquid 3 equal portions.

One portion is purple food colour.

MAKING OF BLUE COLOUR

Purple colour was divided in 3 parts out of which one was purple itself. Now take the 2nd portion. Add baking soda in it.

Mix very well. It will turn into blue colour.

MAKING OF PINK COLOUR

In 3rd part, add lemon juice little by little and keep mixing.

It will turn into pink.

MAKING OF YELLOW

Take water, turmeric and sugar in a sauce pan.

Similarly boil, remove froth, one string consistency, add lemon juice and vanilla essence.

Sieve in a bowl. Its yellow colour.

MAKING OF RED

Add peeled and chopped beetroots in a blender jar. Also add water. Blend to a fine puree.

Sieve like before.

Pour the beetroot juice in a sauce pan. Further process is again the same from adding sugar to vanilla essence.

Red food colour is ready.

HOMEMADE NATURAL FOOD COLOURS – RECIPE CARD