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4.4 from 15 votes

Homemade Natural Blue Food Coloring

Natural Food Coloring made from a surprise ingredient. Artificial Food Coloring isn't healthy. Here's a way to make Homemade Natural Blue Color yourself.

Course: Condiments , Others
Cuisine: Vegan , Keto , AIP

Ingredients

  • Half-head red cabbage (yes, I said "red cabbage!")
  • water
  • baking soda

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Wash the cabbage and cut out the stem.
  2. Chop into small pieces.
  3. Place cabbage pieces in a pot and add water until the cabbage is covered.
  4. Simmer for 10 minutes and then drain.
  5. The resulting liquid will be purplish (see photo #1 above).
  6. 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.