Everyone's seen the bright pink beet dyed deviled eggs right? They are awesome, and we all love pink. But when I started seeing butterfly pea flowers popping up everywhere with their pretty blue hues, I thought that this would be a fun alternative to get even more colors of pickled deviled eggs.
No filter, for real. These fun flowers have a bit of a magic trick hidden within them. On the outside, they create a vivid blue hue, but once you add an acid like lemon juice or vinegar, it reacts and turns a deep purple. Check out this Instagram video I made where I poured a little lemon juice into hot water that was steeping with the flowers in a tea infuser.
I did two experiments, one with the flowers and vinegar, because as we know from Easter egg dyeing, vinegar helps the dye absorb into the egg. The second experiment was no vinegar, but butterfly pea flower powder. This resulted in a very light blue — I'm not sure yet if it's from the powder or from the lack of vinegar. Next experiment is flowers and no vinegar to see how much blue those eggs take on (though I guess you can't call them picked if no vinegar is involved!).
But either way, the results are SO PRETTY. And you can't tell any taste difference at all!
Deep Purple and Light Blue Pickled Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- 4 cups cold water
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 2-3 tbsp dried butterfly pea flowers
- Mustard
- Mayonnaise
- Salt pepper, and dill weed to taste
Instructions
- Hard boil your eggs using your favorite method. Mine is in the Instant Pot, it makes them much easier to peel.
- Let the eggs cool to the touch and peel them.
- For the light blue eggs, combine water and butterfly pea flowers in a sealable plastic container. The water will become more vivid the longer they soak, so don’t worry if it looks pale for now.
- For the deep purple eggs, combine the water, vinegar, and butterfly pea flowers in a sealable plastic container. The water will become more vivid the longer they soak, so don’t worry if it looks pale for now.
- Once peeled, add the eggs to the water mixture and seal with the lid. Put in the fridge overnight at least, up to 24 hours.
- Remove the eggs from the water, lightly rinse off any flower pieces, and prepare your deviled eggs to your preferred methods.
These eggs are so fun, and I'm excited to experiment more with butterfly pea flowers.