Homemade Croutons

Name: Homemade Croutons
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Ingredients: 1 loaf French Bread; 1/4 cup Olive Oil; 1.5 tsp Garlic Powder; 2 tsp. Italian seasoning; 1 tsp. Sea Salt; 3/4 tsp. Pepper

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Published: 12/11/2020 | Updated: 04/02/2024

Homemade Croutons are a great way to use up old bread! Adjust the seasonings to your tastes and enjoy your salads, soups, and more!

When I make salads and stick out a bag of store-bought croutons, my husband never, ever uses them. He has no trouble passing over them without a second thought.

But when I made these homemade croutons, he can’t stop snacking on them! And I don’t even mean with a salad (although he uses them on that too). But just sticking them in a container on the counter, and he can’t keep his hands out.

They honestly are that good. Crunchy little bites of seasoned goodness that are baked to seal in all the flavor.

It’s a good thing they’re so easy to make and cost practically nothing. Homemade croutons are a great way to use up leftover bread, which we always seem to have laying around.

How Do You Make Homemade Croutons?

Bread- You honestly can use whatever pieces of bread you have on-hand for croutons. It’s better if it isn’t fresh bread and spongy, but starting to dry out a little bit. For these pictures, I used Italian loaf of bread, but you can also use French bread, sliced sandwich bread, challah, and on and on. I’ve even used hamburger and hot dog rolls before if I have extras I know we won’t use!

You want to slice your bread into cubes. I usually make mine about 1″ or so, but you can really make them whatever size you prefer. Just try to make them all similar sizes so that they bake evenly.

Oil- I toss them in an extra virgin olive oil but if I’m in a pinch, I’ve been known to use canola oil.

Seasonings- This is where it gets fun because you can customize it to your taste! I usually do salt, black pepper, a teaspoon garlic powder, and Italian seasonings. That’s just kind of my go-to. But you can your favorite seasonings, parsley, oregano, onion powder, ranch seasoning mix, parmesan cheese and so much more! You could even try a chili powder version of croutons! Just experiment and have fun with it!

Directions:

To make the croutons, place the bread cubes in a large bowl and even drizzle the olive oil over them. Toss to coat evenly.

Then add your seasonings and toss again to coat.

I’ll be honest, it isn’t the easiest to get everything coated evenly, but somehow it always seems to work out that they all taste amazing! If I’m having trouble getting them all coated, I’ll pour them out onto a baking sheet and toss them on there. I just feel like I can see them better that way.

Then bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. You do want to pull them out halfway through the cooking time to flip them so they cook evenly.

The time it takes is really going to depend on how large your bread cubes are. For mine, it took right around 14 minutes till I pulled them out or until golden brown.

How Can You Use Homemade Croutons?

The obvious answer is salads! They taste amazing with a Chicken Cobb Salad or Shrimp Avocado Salad.
We also like to put croutons on soup. Like Mexican Chicken Salad or tomato soup.
You could also use them in a stuffing recipe or even a savory bread pudding recipe.
Or just be like my husband and snack on them like they’re pretzels!

Looking for more Side Dishes recipes

Side dishes are one of the most important parts of any meal. They can give you a lot of flavor and variety, and they’re a great way to use up leftovers or get some extra nutrients in your diet. Here are some more recipes for side dishes that you can try out in your own cooking.

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