Instead of adding three drops of synthetic food coloring to everything you make or drink now through the end of the night on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, see if there's a green natural food coloring that'll suit you on this comprehensive list. Plants, full of chlorophyll, are the natural choice for making food green (or being green food) but they are used in a lot of different ways and produce a wide spectrum of greenery. Today let's look at how to make green natural food coloring for all of your fun St. Patrick's Day treats!
Spirulina
Color: A blueish-green
Uses: This video on coloring vegan buttercream shows many different natural food colors, and how to deepen the color of natural food colors in buttercream frosting. You can see how the spirulina makes it a grainy blueish-greenish. Make sure you aren't getting Blue Majick, which will of course, give you a much bluer than greener end product.
You can also mix this powder into any baked good or anything that uses flour, with no problem. Or make this fun spirulina-tinged smoothie bowl!
Kale or Spinach
Color: A dark or bright green, respectively
Uses: If you boil water and spinach or kale together, you can use it in icings that call for mixing water in. Or you can use it in another of place you'd use water in a recipe, but it may have a faint green taste if you don't have other, stronger flavors to mask it. This would be great for coloring rice or quinia, or these awesomely vibrant garlic spinach waffles.
Matcha
Color: A medium green
Uses: Use matcha powder to bake with, make drinks green. These matcha swirl cookies are especially striking!
Avocado
Color: A light, springy green
Uses: Use avocado in certain baking situations, like these avocado pancakes. Or, try replacing something creamy with avocado to give it a green hue — maybe deviled eggs or a ranch dipping sauce?
Parsley, Cilantro and Basil
Color: Bright green
Uses: Make a thick, bright green pesto with basil, or a chimmichuri sauce with the parsley. Or you can color your grains, like this vibrant green cilantro lime quinoa!
Mint
Bright to light green:
Uses: Add greenness and a hint of mint to sweets and baked goods or thick minty smoothies. My favorite way to enjoy mint is alongside chocolate.
Peas
Color: A bright green
Uses: Peas go great in pasta dough, as I learned from Salty Seattle's book, Pasta Pretty Please!
Natural Coloring for Green Beer
NO. Don't ruin any good craft beer with any of these colorings, which will throw off the carefully crafted flavor. If you're going to use any natural dyes in beer, please ruin a domestic beer that comes in a suitcase from the gas station. But if you must, this tutorial suggests wheatgrass, matcha, or spirulina to dye beer green. For craft beer, just suck it up and use a drop of chemical food coloring if you just need your green beer.
Happy coloring!