March 2nd is National Read Across America Day, also known as Dr. Seuss Day! I adored this holiday as a child. My mom always did something fun for it. Usually we would have green eggs and ham; because let’s be real how could you not? We had a blast! So I got to thinking, there surely had to be a way to color the eggs without using traditional food coloring. There are so many studies showing how not great they are for us. But I still want to be the “fun mom”. (Not that Baby Poppy Seed is even eating eggs this year haha.) 

To Google I went in search of a more natural way to make my eggs a very unnatural color. I found a recipe for natural green food coloring using spinach. Click here to get the original recipe. They have a couple different types of natural food coloring as well. I believe their intended purpose is for frosting but spoiler, it works for eggs too! Down below is a picture with the food coloring in it. For reference it looks like a watery, runny, baby food.

It is so easy to make this natural green food coloring. All that you need is spinach, water, and a blender. I had frozen spinach already, so that is what I used. The original recipe does not make a huge distinction with their directions between frozen or fresh. They are almost the same for both. Stating if using frozen spinach to just thaw and drain the spinach before using it. However this did not work for me. In fact, my results were way off from the stated quantity. 

Here is what I did. I was following the recipe and did not want to make tons of green food coloring. So I halved the amount stated, which is 1 cup. I put ½ cup of thawed frozen spinach into my blender with the 3 tablespoons of water. Holy Moly! I ended up needing to use 4 times the amount! I had to do 12 tablespoons of water for ½ cup of frozen spinach. It makes sense though. Spinach wilts down when cooked. You could start off with a pound of leaves and it cooks down to nothing. Because they did not make a distinction between fresh and frozen spinach it messed up the water needed. It also made way more! Green eggs for days…

I would suggest either using fresh spinach and following their directions or cutting way back on the quantity of the spinach if using frozen. I would use ¼ cup of frozen spinach (or less depending on how much coloring you need) and 6 tbsp of water. Now onto the eggs!

I really wanted the eggs to look as close to the book as possible. I didn’t think it was going to be possible. But I was incredibly, pleasantly surprised! My 1st attempt turned out the best. Don’t mess with a good thing they say. I still did. Haha.

1st attempt:

I separated the egg whites and yolks. Into the whites I gently whisked in 1 tbsp of the natural green food coloring. I highly recommend a nonstick spray. I think this may have been why my first attempt was so successful. My burner was on medium heat and I let my pan warm up slightly. I poured in the green egg whites and very carefully placed/ plopped in the yolks. Then cooked to desired doneness of the yolks.

2nd attempt:

Big huge flop! I wanted to try and make the green color more even throughout the egg whites. I put 1 tbsp of natural green food coloring into the whites and mixed it with my immersion blender. Just a little bit. I didn’t want to turn it into a meringue. But unfortunately it was still too much air whisked into the whites. The texture was wayyyyyy off. No good!

3rd attempt:

Still did 1 tbsp of coloring into the whites. I whisked just enough to start to incorporate the color into the whites. Poured the whites into the pan and placed my yolk. Honestly I think the only reason this one wasn’t as good as the first one was because I ran out of cooking spray. 

I also made a scrambled egg version. For that I used 2 tbsp of the natural green food coloring and cooked as usual.

Hopefully my natural green food coloring experiment saves you some eggs. Maybe you can pay off your mortgage with the money saved. You’re welcome! Enjoy your Dr. Seuss Day.

XOXO,

Poppy Seed’s Kitchen