Food enters through the eyeswhich is why so many colorants are used in the food industry to make processed products appear more appetizing that would otherwise have a duller and not so appetizing appearance.

The colors of the vegetables, legumes and fruits that we buy are given by a series of pigments that can also be used to make dyes and dye our preparations making them more striking. When we prepare all meals at home using raw materials, we also add colorings, consciously or without realizing it, such as in paellas or stews.

I briefly explain some of the most used natural food colorings and how to extract them and use them at home to obtain vibrant colors for any food without resorting to undesirable artificial colorings.

green dye

1. Chlorophyll (E-140)

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Chlorophyll is a natural green dye found in many plants (also algae), essential in photosynthesis. Any green vegetable contains chlorophyll among other pigments, hence the different shades between, for example, a chard leaf and a kale leaf.

Chlorophyll in general holds up quite well to almost all kitchen conditions, although may degrade and become more brown if we subject it to prolonged cooking. So if you want to take advantage of all the green coloring power of chlorophyll, avoid overdoing it with cooking.

It is soluble in water and fat.

How to prepare it

It is difficult to extract only chlorophyll at home to use as a pigment. Instead what we can do is use green leafy vegetables that do not have a very strong flavor and convert them into a green concentrate that can be used in any preparation, whether sweet or savory.

The vegetables of choice are usually spinach. They have a weak structure and dissolve quickly, turning the entire cooking liquid green.

1. Boil a good handful of fresh spinach (washed and cut) with double the volume of water, until they are almost dissolved.
2. Beat it with the mixer for 2-3 minutesuntil there are no pieces left, and put the mixture back on the heat (over low heat) until it reduces by ¼ of its volume, approx.
3. If you want a natural, powerful and concentrated green dye, strain the liquid with a cloth strainer and keep the paste that settles in the strainer. The green broth also serves as a coloring, as long as you replace the water in your recipe with this liquid. If you don’t mind making a less elaborate green coloring, just keep the result of the shake and use it.

You can add other green leafy vegetables if you want, for a different effect or a more delicate flavor: watercress, parsley, collards and turnip greens are also good options to «dye» your dishes.

2. Spirulina

spirulina powder It also serves as a natural green dye. It’s not the cheapest, but Being a concentrated powder, it spreads quite a bit. if you only want it to color the end of a cream (vichyssoises and similar), for homemade cookies and things like that.

3. Algae

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For savory dishes, You can use other seaweed such as wakame (boil, whisk and reduce) or nori (toast and grind), which have a much more pronounced flavor as well as good amounts of salt.

4. Matcha green tea

It provides a more intense green color when used in preparations with plenty of liquid. If you go too far it can be bitter.

Holds heat very well and no need to make any infusion with it; Just add it directly to our mixtures and masses.

Orange and yellow dyes

5. Carotenes (E-160a)

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These pigments are best known for giving their characteristic color of carrots. They are found in more red, orange and yellow foods, such as tomatoes, oranges, apricots and bananas.

There are several types of carotenesand all of them are usually found together in carrots:

• He β-carotene is one of them, precursor of the vitamin A.
• Another is the luteinwhich is not exclusive to eggs, is mainly found in green leafy vegetables. It is soluble in lipids and more yellow than orange in color.
• The zeaxanthins They are redder and responsible for the main colors of paprika and goji berries, although they are also found in vegetables as different as romaine lettuce or spinach.

How to prepare carrot powder

Extract carotenes at home Using them as a colorant is not an easy task, but we can, instead, make carrot powder. We will thus have a totally natural powder coloring that will help us give orange color.

1. For this wash and peel 4-5 large carrots (or 5-6 medium ones), cut them into very very thin slices (almost transparent) or into strips with a peeler or grater.
2. Dehydrate them completely in a dehydrator, in the oven (80ºC, a few hours, depending on the quantity and water they contain) or in the pan (minimum heat, without oil, uncovered).
3. Once completely dry, grind them with a grindersift the powder and grind the excess again so that it becomes a very fine powder. Store it in a tightly closed container away from moisture.

This carrot powder will not only give orange yellow color, but it will provide avery pleasant taste of carrotswithout adding more body, moisture or weight to the dough or to what we are preparing, for example homemade pasta, a risotto, cookies, cakes, etc. It is, therefore, a good natural coloring for baking as well as for savory dishes.

Carotenes are very stable to heat and acidic conditions, so you will not have a problem with discoloration on any plate.

6. Annato (E-160b)

It is the orange-yellow dye that It is extracted from annatto or annatto seeds.which is a subtropical tree. Annatto, powder from the pericarp of these seeds, contains bixinwhich is its fat-soluble part, and norbixinwhich is the water-soluble part. Both are apocarotenoidsa type of carotenoid like the one that gives color to saffron or loquat.

You can find bags and jars of annatto seeds in Latin products storesFor example.

The color that annatto provides It is very stable when subjected to heatso we can use it as a coloring in preparations that have to go through a cooking process: rice (paellas, pilafs, risottos…), pâtés, spreads… anything that seems unappetizing to you because it is pale can have a touch of annatto.

To extract the dye at home, just grind a handful of seeds with a coffee grinder or crush them into powder in a mortar. Use this powder later to give color to your preparations.

Depending on the amount it can be darker, orange, or more yellow (turmeric type).

Annatto in addition to color It also has flavor: a little peppery, nutmeg, slightly sweet and almondy. Keep this in mind before adding large quantities.

7. Curcumin (E-160)

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It is extracted from turmericrhizome used as a dye and as a spice in many regions of South and Southeast Asia. It is stable to most conditions (light, heat, high or low pH) and also works as an antioxidant.

You can find turmeric powder in any supermarketin powder bottles, and the whole root in some fruit stores.

red dye

8. Betanin (E-162)

It is the vibrant red dye of the beets. The dye is obtained from beet juice extractis concentrated and used as a colorant in sweets, drinks and frozen, refrigerated or frozen preparations. that do not need cookingsince it is not very resistant to certain heat and pH conditions but together with sugar it is much more stable.

At home it is difficult to isolate only this dye. Even if we dehydrated the juice, as it degrades quickly in contact with the oxygen in the air and light, we would be left with a brown powder.

Betanins are not the only pigment that beets contain. They also have other betalains such as betaxanthins (yellow-orange), which together create that red-magenta color of the roots.

The pigments of beets They are sensitive to the pH of the medium (the more acidic, the more purple), and the temperatureso sometimes cakes and muffins made with beets turn out more brown than red. This can be partly avoided by adding more acidic ingredients (cream of tartar, lemon, etc.).

How to use it

Since we cannot easily extract a concentrated dye with betanins alone, what we can do is use your own beet.

1. For a concentrated broth of beets, cook them whole, with just enough water and a few drops of lemon or vinegar.
2. Then beat them with the mixer and, if necessary, add a little of the cooking water, until you obtain the cream you want to use.

A very small amount will be needed to dye any preparation. In the case of salty dishes such as rice, sauces, creams, etc., preferably add it at the end of cooking to avoid color degradation.

Also you can do as in the case of the carrotdry and grind. This powder can be used just like, for example, paprika. With a small amount you get a lot of color. Of course, it degrades quickly, so keep it in a tightly closed container, preferably in the refrigerator.