Homemade Natural Blue Food Coloring
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Today I am sharing something that I never thought I would make: a Homemade Natural Blue Food Coloring Recipe.
Natural blue food coloring is one of the hardest colors to make naturally—but there are a few options that actually work and one of them costs very little to make.
Most of the time I try to keep things simple in the kitchen since my life is really busy, but sometimes I like to have a little extra fun with food to make our whole food/allergy-friendly kitchen more interesting, especially true when our kids were little.
But artificial food coloring is just a no go for me.
There are a few ways to make natural blue food coloring. Some work better than others depending on what you need it for.
- Red cabbage – the best DIY method (explained below)
- Blue spirulina – the most vibrant blue, great for frosting and smoothies
- Butterfly pea flower – a bright blue that changes color depending on acidity
Below, I’ll show you how to make blue food coloring at home using red cabbage, plus tips for getting the best color.
Why I Made This Blue Food Coloring
Our boys skated in a local charity hockey league and for their season finale, the team members were going to receive a cupcake decorated with frosting to match their uniforms.
It would have been simple if they'd been on a green, red, or yellow team, but blue?!
I had a good Carob Muffin recipe that I could use for healthy cupcakes and then the green source from these Mint Fat Bombs would work, and turmeric is great for yellow and beets work for pink. But blue?
I initially told my boys not to get their hopes up, but I figured something out and I think you'll love it too.
Reasons to Avoid Artificial Food Colors
We all know that those artificial food colors are not healthy. I mean, who thinks that eating something fake is good for you?
Here are some things to consider. Artificial food colorings:
- are suspected of having links to behavioral and health problems.
- can have aluminum in them. When you see, “FD & C Yellow Aluminum Lake” on an ingredient label, you can know that you will be eating aluminum. There is discussion about this form not being as toxic as other forms, but I would prefer to take no chances here.
- can contain barium or zirconium.
How to Use This Natural Blue Color
You could use this natural blue food coloring for any of the following:
- dying Easter eggs
- paper mache projects
- crafts
- fun creative food ideas (blue mashed potatoes, anyone?)
How to Make Natural Blue Food Coloring (Red Cabbage Method)
Here are the basic instructions with some process images. For the complete information, scroll to the printable recipe card.
- Boil cabbage
- Reserve water
- Add baking soda to the water
Photo 1: Reserved cabbage water.
Photo 2: The final result: homemade natural blue food coloring.
Money Saving Tip: Use filtered water for cooking the cabbage and then, though it is pretty well boiled, you can still eat the leftover veggies for dinner. Try topping them with Moroccan Vinaigrette and Chaat Masala.
Recipe Notes
- Natural food coloring is prone to fading quickly. If your color isn't that deep to begin with, you won't have much margin for fading.
- Don't try to make this blue too dark by adding a bunch of baking soda to the water if you're using it for food, or you'll end up with baking soda-flavored food.
- The color in the cabbage juice itself is not particularly sensitive to temperature, but the mixture of the baking soda with the juice is. So you will want to add the color after the food item has cooled, or else only add it to food items that will not be heated.
- If you're making frosting, note that this method creates a softer, more muted blue—blue spirulina typically will create a brighter result.
When Natural Blue Food Coloring Won't Work Well
Natural blue food coloring is very sensitive to pH:
- Acidic ingredients in your recipe (like lemon juice or yogurt) will turn it purple
- Using too much baking soda can push it toward green
- Heat can dull the color
For best results, add the coloring after cooking and use it in neutral or slightly alkaline foods.
Homemade Natural Blue Food Coloring
Ingredients
- Half-head red cabbage (yes, I said “red cabbage!”)
- Water
- Baking Soda
Instructions
- Wash the cabbage and cut out the stem.
- Chop into small pieces.
- Place cabbage pieces in a pot and add water until the cabbage is covered.
- Simmer for 10 minutes and then drain.
- The resulting liquid will be purplish (see photo #1 above).
- Gradually add baking soda, ½ teaspoon at a time, until you get a nice blue hue (see photo #2, above). Be careful, because the baking soda will add flavor to the coloring. If you are using the color for something you will be eating then you need to be especially careful how much you add. Since it is the alkaline quality of the baking soda that causes the red cabbage juice to turn blue, you can also add spinach juice, green tea, or another alkaline ingredient.
Notes
- The color in the cabbage juice itself is not particularly sensitive to temperature, but the mixture of the baking soda with the juice is. So you will want to add the color after the food item has cooled, or else only add it to food items that will not be heated.
- Natural food coloring is prone to fading quickly. And the if your color isn't that deep to begin with, you won't have much margin for fading.
- Don't try to make this blue too dark by adding a bunch of baking soda to the water if you're using it for food, or you'll end up with baking soda-flavored foo
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
Don't Feel Like DIYing?
If you'd rather not have to make your own natural blue food coloring or would like an option that will work for an acidic recipe, here is a link to a set of good natural food coloring including blue.
What will YOU use this Natural Blue Food Coloring for?
Hi- I just tried your blue dye this evening and first
Tried my icing and also tried to dye decorative sugar
With no success! I am a newer baker, so if you have any
Suggestions on maybe frosting/ icing as it was made
Organically on how to hold this color better, I would be so
Appreciative! This is for Xmas! I am curious how this would
Do with dyed eggs also! I found this recipe because, I too used
The IndiaTree and the blue turns my decorative sugar Teal- not
Very christmassy!!! I definitely had a Duh moment when I tried dyeing the sugar and drenched it instead!! Anyway now I’m just curious
About what this will work on??!!! Thanks for any input that you can share!
Hi Lisa. I might need for you to share some more information with me. It worked with my icing. What went wrong with yours? The only thing that I can think of with the sugar is that the color is perhaps too watery and you could perhaps heat some on the stove on a simmer until some of the liquid evaporated. The colors in the little bottles are a lot more concentrated. That being said, I have not tried to dye sugar ever. I would think that this would for sure work on eggs. You mentioned that you are trying to use this for Christmas – what color are you trying to achieve? I typically think of green and red as being Christmas colors so I could maybe help depending on what color you are trying to get. I only did the icing, but I am sure that eggs would work as well. But getting a really deep true blue is going to be hard. The color was definitely pale as you can see in my photo of the cupcakes.
I hope that helps!
Hello, I was searching for a way to dye a pale almost grey cotton purse blue so that it wouldn’t need to be washed as often. Is there any issue with the cabbage juice dye smelling or fading? Is there a non toxic way to set the color? Seems I’ve heard salt sets colors but the purse has some metal that might corrode. I’m really glad to find this website and intend to bookmark it for other finds and sharing.
Thank you, Catherine
Hi Catherine. Thanks for your kind words.
I don’t think the cabbage dye will work on fabric. Here is a quote from something I dug up on the web:
It’s just from a yahoo Q&A so I don’t have a source.
Hope that isn’t too disappointing for you. Looks like the cabbage is good for food and not fabric. Hope to see you around later, nonetheless!
Can you possibly tell me the amount of blue liquid and baking soda that you used to get this color? I tried to do this earlier but the blue barely showed up and I am afraid that if I continue to add more my icing would become too runny. I am looking for exactly what you have…thanks
Jen, I am so sorry for not getting back to you. I am afraid that your question got lost in a pile of emails. Were you able to work this out? I basically followed the directions that I wrote out in the instructions — putting the cabbage in a pot and adding water until they were just covered. Then I added the baking soda a little at a time. My blue color was quite faint as you can see from the photo. I should add that my frosting was pretty thick. I hope to post the recipe soon.
Let me know – and again, I am sorry for not getting this to you sooner.
Very cool! There was an article in last month’s Kiwi that gave directions for natural food dye. They used frozed blueberries to make blue dye.
Visiting here from Finer Things Friday, but I would love if you linked up at my Friday Food Fight, too.
https://deniseisrundmt.com/2011/04/29/if-i-knew-you-were-coming-idve-baked-a-peep-cake/
I used blueberries in my Easter Fudge: , but you get more of a purple-ish color from them. For blue you really need the cabbage :-).
I just started using India Ink dyes, which I get at Whole Foods. Yes, they are super-expensive, but so worth it. I just made my daughter cupcakes for school. I made the prettiest, most natural-looking purple. Reminded me of spring flowers. And it was completely plant-based.
You do have to keep them refrigerated, and they don’t last for that long (I heard about six months), but that actually encourages me not to be cheap and to really make the colors deep and rich. Great idea with the cabbage, though!
Cool!
Funny. I was just searching THIS WEEK for natural blue food coloring tutorials!! (Just happened upon your post while browsing through the links at Kelly’s.) Your cupcakes sound delish. Never thought of doing chocolate and mint together in a cake.
GREAT tip!
I’ve heard that trick before, but never used it so far. But just had to say that the first picture looks awfully nice!
This looks like fun! If my little girl was a bit older, we’d be trying this ASAP. But since she’s only 11 months, it might have to wait a tad longer, but it still looks like an awesome kitchen project. And infinitely better than icky storebought food coloring…
If you think that she is able to enjoy the color, you could have her add the baking soda once the cabbage water is cooled. My boys really enjoyed the color concept. It was fun for mom too :-)!