How To Color Pasta The Natural Way

Before we get to the actual content of the topic at hand here, let’s talk a little about why we even need colored pasta in the first place. Isn’t that a very peculiar and weirdly specific thing to do? Yes, it is. And if you are a parent, it probably is not the only weird thing you have done.

People do use multi-colored pasta to add an aesthetic element to the edibility, but colors are particularly useful if you have a child who is either a picky eater or needs constant entertainment to do just about anything.

It is pretty funny to witness children get fascinated by colorful things, and parents use their curiosity to do things like eating or even engaging in sensory activities. Coloring pasta noodles can be of particular use here; it looks good at fancy parties, kids can play with it, they will probably prefer eating it too as opposed to regular pasta.

While there are many alternatives out there to color pasta, including watercolors and food coloring, we think we should utilize some healthy, toxin-free, chemical-free ways to get the job done.

Whether you are coloring home-made pasta dough or adding liquids to boxed noodles, here’s how to make colored pasta the natural way.

Using Beets To Get Pink Colored Pasta

Beetroots used in high concentration give off a rich restaurant-quality pink-purple look. Moreover, you choose to make a puree and mix it with the dough slowly, or you can make juice out of the beetroots and mix it with the pasta. Either way, the process is straightforward.

The Process for a Pink Puree:

Cook in boiling water for 45 minutes to draw out the maximum color and make them tender
Blend the boiled vegetables in a blender or a food processor to make them as smooth as possible
Mix the puree with the dough in small amounts gradually and start kneading it.
Let it rest for half an hour
Make your pasta

The Process for Pink Juice

Pick out five beets, wash them, peel them and cut them into small pieces.
Add 4 cups of water and the beet chunks in a blender and give it a good spin until the mixture is smooth.
Pass the mixture through a sieve and into a medium to large pot, discarding the pulp.
Add pasta to the same pot and cook it.

Using Red Cabbage To Get The Blue Color

Blue is pretty much rare in plants for obvious reasons, but there are some hacks to get this color. One of these hacks includes adding some base, like baking soda, to red cabbage. Red cabbages are the most common item used to make blue dye, and here’s how to do it.

Cut the red cabbage leaves into pieces, and boil them for a quarter of an hour
Take out the cabbage leaves and reduce the remaining water until it begins to form a purple syrup or a paste.
Keep adding pinches of baking powder until the purple turns into the shade of blue that you want
Mix it with your pasta dough and cook the pasta

Remember not to add too much baking soda or the paste will start tasting awful.

It is also essential to make sure not to add anything acidic to this mixture, or it would go back to being purplish blue.

Using Spinach For Green Color

Spinach is notorious as food that people are opposed to eating; in fact, there is an entire cartoon that was made to get kids to eat spinach. Here’s another way to get kids to try spinach:

Method 1: Heat it

Take 8 ounces of fresh spinach and chop it as fine as you can
Heat in a pan, adding salt according to your taste
Do not add water
Cover the pan and leave on low heat for 5 minutes
Take out the spinach, cool it and squeeze out all the water
Add the mixture to some dough, and start kneading it.

Method 2: Make a Puree

Cook in boiling water for 45 minutes to draw out the maximum color and make the spinach tender
Blend the boiled spinach in a blender or a food processor to make them as smooth as possible
Mix the puree with the dough in small amounts gradually and start kneading it.
Let it rest for half an hour
Make your pasta

Using Tomatoes For Orange Color

Anyone who has been cooking for a while knows how to make tomato sauce; you can pretty much use that to color your pasta orange. Here are an easy few steps to do it just in case:

Put some garlic and red pepper in a medium-heated pan. Let it cook until you can start hearing that rich fragrance.
Add some chopped up tomatoes, stirring and pressing them down with a wooden spoon.
Let it cooked until the liquids have soaked and a thick paste has formed
Add to the pan in which you will cook the pasta

Remember to use fully ripe tomatoes; otherwise, the color would be partially orange.

Using Turmeric For Yellow Color

Turmeric is probably one of the ingredients in the kitchen almost notorious for the yellow coloring that gets hard to rub off your fingers. You can use it for your pasta too by using the following methods:

Method 1: Using Turmeric Powder Directly

Add a half teaspoon of ground turmeric powder and salt with the pasta dough
Mix the dough and let it set
Make the pasta

Method 2: Turmeric Powder With Eggs

Mix ground turmeric powder with eggs
Add the mixture of eggs with some dough and salt
Knead the dough and let it set
Make the pasta

Method 3: Boiled Turmeric

Skin and chop the turmeric
Add 100 ounces of water and bring to boil
Leave for 20 minutes
Sieve the water and add the turmeric to the pasta
Cook for 6 minutes

Resources:
WonderHowTo

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