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This is the classic Russian/ Ukrainian way of making Easter eggs. I love the different “woodsy” tones that come from dying in onion peels. It’s a natural way to dye your Easter eggs. No – they don’t taste like onion.
You can achieve darker tones by boiling the onion peels longer before adding the eggs, so your first batch will probably be lighter than your second batch and so on. These are so easy and a fun tradition to keep! Try to use only the peels from yellow onion for a nicer color.
If you use peels only from red onion, the color will be much darker. For more fancy way to dye eggs click here. Have a blessed and Happy Easter!
What you will need for Russian/Ukrainian Easter Eggs:
-The dry outer peels from about 10 yellow onions
– a dozen white eggs.
Instructions for Russian Easter Eggs:
1. Place eggs in a bowl with warm water. Eggs are more likely to crack if they are placed in boiling water when they’re cold.
2. Fill a small saucepan about 1/3 with water (or enough to cover the eggs). Add onion peel and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 to 10 minutes until onion peels release their color.
3. Remove eggs from warm water and place them in the pot, making sure they are fully submerged in water. Add more boiling water if needed. Boil 7 minutes, turning the eggs occasionally.
4. Remove eggs to a bowl of cold water. Once they are cooled, dry with paper towels and Tada!! You can also rub some oil on the shell to give them a nice shine.
Russian Easter Eggs
Ingredients
- dry outer peels from about 10 yellow onions
- dozen white eggs.
Instructions
- Place eggs in a bowl with warm water. Eggs are more likely to crack if they are placed in boiling water when they're cold.
- Fill a small saucepan about 1/3 with water (or enough to cover the eggs). Add onion peel and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 to 10 minutes until onion peels release their color.
- Remove eggs from warm water and place them in the pot, making sure they are fully submerged in water. Add more boiling water if needed. Boil 7 minutes, turning the eggs occasionally.
- Remove eggs to a bowl of cold water. Once they are cooled, dry with paper towels and Tada!! You can also rub some oil on the shell to give them a nice shine.
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Thank you for the suggestion of placing eggs in warm water before boiling to prevent cracking. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why that happens almost every time I boil eggs, lol. 🙂
You are welcome Jay 😀 and thank you for visiting the blog.
What a fun post. Your Easter posts remind of when I visited Kiev several years ago on my Easter break, and Orthodox Easter happened to fall on the same weekend. I was so lucky to see all the celebrations and generally had a wonderful time. Each year I mean to try to make my OWN Pashka but not yet…maybe next spring!
Natasha, the eggs are beautiful!!!
We do something similar in Estonia, but wrap the onion peels around the eggs. This gives each egg a unique and gorgeous pattern. See here: http://nami-nami.blogspot.com/2011/04/dyeing-easter-eggs-with-onion-skins.html
I love it! I will try that next year. Thanks for the link. 🙂
Hi Olga – you are welcome 🙂
Христос воскрес! Воістину воскрес!
Воістину воскрес! Happy Easter Joe!
Also beets make it reddish in color.
Do you grate the beets first and then boil them, or how do you get them to release their color? Do you add something to the water (vinegar)?
Yellow: 2 tablespoons turmeric, 1/2 cup dried marigolds, goldenrod or cosmos, or a handful of carrot tops
Green: Handful of coltsfoot
Blue: 2 cups chopped red cabbage
Pink: 2 cups chopped beets
Purple: 1 cup frozen blueberries
Brown: 2 tablespoons coffee grounds or 4 black tea bags
either chopped or just whole works too (for the beets) and nothing added.
Wow thank you! I can’t wait to try all those. All the natural hues probably make for some beautiful Easter eggs
Joe – another great idea! Do you know if it produces a different result than beets? I’ll have to try both I guess. I like that symbolism of eggs – it’s not about an Easter bunny 🙂
Thank you, Natalia.
From the times I have used it, it seems to give a richer red. You need to boil the eggs in it. Use a glass or enameled pot. I used vinegar as a mordant, didn’t try any of the other standard mordants.
If you boil the eggs in water and then steep them, you get a brown or yellow. I haven’t experimented with this though. The type of mordant used might make a difference in the color.
Pomegranate juice makes a nice red dye for eggs.
I love the symbolism of Easter eggs. Red for the Blood of Christ, the had shell the sealed tomb, the white of the egg the pure life Christians should lead, and the golden yolk, the glory of Heaven.
There is a nice addition to this…you add a parsley leaf on top of the egg and secure it in place with a thin mesh, and tie it into place…then boil it. Then u take off the mesh ir lace and you have a nice parsley leaf and mesh design.
That sounds awesome! I’m excited to try it. Thank you Liliya!
Just yesterday, an elderly Russian woman who is a customer on my husband’s mail route gave him an egg dyed this way, as a Good Friday gift. I had been trying to figure out how she got a leafy image on the egg, and I think she must have used a parsley leaf bound to the egg, because that’s exactly what it looks like. The egg is so beautiful!
I have a tutorial how to make prints on the egg here :).
This is a memory lane trip back home 🙂
Every Easter our family did this. I have to say, I love your way of cooking, presentation, directions, tips and especially the photos! Thank you!
Thank you Nadia! I’m glad it brought back memories for you 🙂
Happy Easter Natasha! When is ur next post? I cant wait!!!!
This is so neat! I bet boiling some with beats would look really pretty mixed in with these. Too bad I am out of town until Easter so I can’t make them this year. 🙁
Beets would probably make some beautiful eggs. It’s a very strong dye – I always have pink fingers after working with beets. I’ll try that for Sunday 🙂
I tried beets and they didn’t work out for some reason. Looked pink when wet but dried to a splotchy brown color. Though I’ve read that it works for a faint pink, so maybe it’s just my technique. I used red cabbage for blue, turmeric for yellow, and one followed by the other for green. Also yellow onions for an orangey and a deeper brick red color. Will try pomegranate juice for the red next time–thanks for the tip below!–maybe next year? I’ll try to post a pic of what I did to FB…
Great ideas Natalia! Thank you! I wouldn’t have thought to put the egg into another color to make green! 🙂 Looking forward to trying some of these and please do post to facebook!
I remember my mom doing this when we were kids. I thought it was pretty cool even though the eggs come out looking a bit like brown eggs. I just did this last week with onion skins and some other foods, and got a beautiful array of colors that you just don’t get from a kit of chemical dye.