Home & Garden Home 37 Green Food Recipes That Don’t Include Artificial Color By Melissa Breyer Editorial Director Hunter College F.I.T., State University of New York Cornell University Melissa Breyer is Treehugger’s editorial director. She is a sustainability expert and author whose work has been published by the New York Times and National Geographic, among others. our editorial process Melissa Breyer Updated October 11, 2018 CC BY 2.0. Kirinohana/Flickr Share Twitter Pinterest Email Home Sustainable Eating Pest Control Natural Cleaning DIY Family Green Living Thrift & Minimalism From avocado pasta to green tea ice cream, ditch the dye and indulge in all-natural festive green foods this year. There's really no telling how Sam-I-Am came up with the green eggs he persistently foisted upon the unnamed character in Dr. Seuss' beloved tale of discovery and acceptance. But it's safe to say that copious amounts of green food dye have gone into re-creating the dish in enduring homage to the book ever since it was published in 1960. Likewise, how much green food do you come across on March 17? And we don't mean kale and peas, we're talking concoctions like cupcakes and beer that have been dyed ungodly shades of green in honor of all things Irish. But alas, one look at the Center for Science in the Public Interest report, Food Dyes: Rainbow of Risks, should be enough to warn anyone off of vividly dyed foodstuffs. But that doesn't mean you can't have fun with green food! On the contrary, finding the green in Mother Nature and tweaking it to its brightest potential is the ideal way to have your green cupcakes, and eat them too. Consider the following (click titles to go to the recipes): Matcha yokan Kirinohana/Flickr/CC BY 2.0 Linguine with smoky avocado sauce Kelly Rossiter/CC BY 2.0 Cupcakes with avocado and vanilla buttercream © Melissa Breyer Matcha layer cake with red beans Parkerman & Christie/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0 Mocha almond fudge avocado cake Vegan Feast Catering/CC BY 2.0 Vegetarian pea pesto crostini Creamy asparagus soup Kelly Rossiter/CC BY 2.0 Banana avocado smoothie © Courtesy of the Hass Avocado Board Cream of avocado soup Spanish Recipes/CC BY 2.0 Matcha banana bread Bonbon/Flickr/CC BY 2.0 Pasta with kale pesto; or try this, pasta with nettles pesto Green tea ice cream Jason Bagley/Flickr/CC BY 2.0 Green tea latte float Alpha/Flickr/CC BY 2.0 Green tea ice cream sandwiches CC BY 2.0. Kirinohana/Flickr Kirinohana/Flickr/CC BY 2.0