Food colour made from fruits, vegetables and spices

Purée, juice or powder... ingredients in your refrigerator and kitchen shelves can be turned into fun edible colours

One of ‘Natural colour artist’ Manya Cherabuddi’s students used colour extracted from red cabbage to ‘colour’ a batch of white chocolate, “No! the chocolates did not taste of cabbage,” she says, dispelling a common misconception about food colour made from vegetables and fruits. “Usually the seasoning and sweetener overpowers the taste of the vegetable or fruit used to extract colour. For instance, if you use beetroot for colour in your pasta, it wouldn’t be very strong as there is the pasta sauce. It does not take away anything from the dish, especially if you consider its nutritional value,” says Hyderabad-based Manya (@manya_cherabuddi on Instagram). A rainbow cake made using synthetic colours for a child in the family made her wonder about the impact on their health and a dermatologist friend telling her about food allergies and rashes that artificial colours cause in children got her thinking of natural food colours. Especially since she had the experience of making colours out of things she found in nature — flowers, plants, leaves and fruits.