Each year when St. Patrick’s Day rolls around, we get inundated with images of food in unnatural shades of green. This always makes us scratch our heads because some of the most beautiful green food we’ve ever seen comes straight from the earth, no food dyes required.
True, there aren’t that many naturally green desserts, but if you play around with kiwi, grapes, limes, mint, pistachios, and even avocado, you can probably come up with something pretty creative. And if you want to go in a completely different direction, you can surprise your kids and friends by using leafy greens in desserts.
Exhibit A: This green Rainbow Chard Cake, which gets its color from real green leaves, not food coloring. It’s a very tasty cake, not super-sweet, but delicious with cream cheese frosting.
Another dye-free dessert option is cookies with spinach frosting– no food coloring in here either! Although it sounds strange, it really tastes more like sugar than spinach. True story: We served these cookies to an entire Little League team and they gobbled them up without hesitation.
Last, this one isn’t Irish (it’s supposedly Swedish), but it’s still naturally green. Our Swedish Potato Casserole gets its pale green hue from spinach. (And spinach and potatoes are the perfect combination, right?.)
More Green Food
Want to make a whole green meal? Check out these other great green ideas:
(Not Your Grandmother’s) Green Goddess Dressing
Green Beans with Charred Ginger and Peanut Sauce
Kale Brownies (OK, these don’t technically look green, but you’re going to love them anyway.)
Like it? Pin it!
Green is such a glorious color, especially with Spring in the air. Love that cake. MIght have to try it for my daughter’s class! Thanks for sharing my pesto recipe!
I love all these naturally green recipes for St. Patrick’s Day – how fun! Thanks so much for including one of mine 🙂
Thanks, Jeanette and Laura!
Thanks for the shout-out to my Kale Pesto! Your green collection is awesome, and I still remember all the green goodness you posted last year around this time. Go green!
I love that the team at them and loved them!!! I put spinach in our smoothies and my son loves them. Then he saw me put it in and said “eww!! I can totally taste it!” Mind you he’s 17… big baby!
Love these cookies!!
LOL – if only they knew… Thanks, Kim!