11 Foods to Dye Green For a Festive St. Patrick's

St. Patrick’s Day is almost here, and you know what that means: Green everything — even food. Just be sure to do your research when you’re getting down to business in the kitchen — you can’t use traditional liquid food coloring on every dish, and there may be a special method (like cooking in the dye) for some foods. That said, we’ve got some ideas on stuff that’s super-easy to turn green.

1. Ice cream and ice cream drinks

You don’t have to have mint-chocolate chip ice cream for it to be green. Mix it up Marble Slab-style by adding green food coloring to vanilla ice cream, mixing it up and putting it on top of that pistachio bread, or add it to your favorite shake. We like this boozy shamrock shake.

More: Boozy Lucky Charms Milkshake Will Start Your St. Patrick’s Day Off Right

2. White sauces

Regardless of the type, any white or pale sauce can be made green using either food coloring or natural colorants like spinach or kale. We’re eager to try this green macaroni and cheese, which uses spinach to make it green (gotta love recipes that let you sneak in some healthy stuff).

3. Cakes

You could probably use five to 10 drops of food coloring in banana or zucchini bread too, but we like this easy recipe for sweet pistachio bread.

4. Frosting and icing

Everyone knows you can dye frosting, but we’re including it here for a recommendation from McCormick. They suggest adding 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract to frosting along with the green food coloring. We think these adorable St. Patrick’s Day mini doughnuts are a great recipe to experiment with.

5. Deviled eggs

A little food coloring in the yolk mixture of your favorite deviled egg recipe before filling them, and you’ve got a fun recipe for a St. Patrick’s Day appetizer. We like these green deviled eggs featuring tarragon.

6. Waffles or pancakes

Waffles and pancakes are easy to dye thanks to their light color and the fact that you can easily judge the color they’ll be when cooked (same as when the batter is raw). But we really love these green velvet pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

7. Cheesecake

Just drop in a little food coloring while you’re whipping up your favorite cheesecake recipe, or try this mint-chocolate chip cheesecake.

8. Breads

You can also add food coloring to almost any bread recipe to make it green. These homemade green bagels with chive cream cheese sound good.

9. Popcorn

You can also dye popcorn green, and while the powdered dyes will work best for plain popcorn, we think you should try this green candied popcorn.

10. Mashed potatoes

Mashed potatoes can easily be dyed using green food coloring, but this recipe for green mashed potatoes featuring kale pesto is also a good way to sneak some healthy greens into your family’s diet under the guise of St. Patrick’s Day revelry.