We all know that vegetables are part of a balanced diet, salad being one of the most popular choices. Well, as I was eating my salad for lunch today, I realized I had finished off my pre-made croutons. Now, I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but if I’m eating a salad, I have to have something crunchy in it. It just makes eating salad bearable!
I didn’t really want to run out for more croutons, so after taking inventory of my home: Bread? Check. Seasonings? Check. Olive oil? Check. I realized I had all the ingredients to make some delicious homemade croutons. That is the beauty of my recipe, you can use staples you typically have in your home. Now, I know you’re busy and hungry, so here is how you can recreate my yummy croutons…
Ingredients:
· Stale bread (the ends work best, I used plain white bread)
· Olive oil
· Your favorite seasonings! Mine are…
o Garlic salt
o Parsley
o Oregano
o Sea Salt
o Ground Pepper
o Basil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
1. Rip up the bread you are using and put the pieces into a medium-sized bowl. You can use plain white bread for sandwiches, wheat bread, or if you want to get fancy, a baguette or French bread. If you prefer to cut it to get more even shapes that is totally up to you. I prefer the difference in shape and the crumbs created by this method. It adds so much flavor and a cool, rustic appearance!
2. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil in the bowl over the top of the bread. I like to drizzle some, toss the bread around, and then drizzle more as needed. You want to make sure all the bread is coated so it will get crisp in the oven.
3. Now, the fun part! You can use any of your favorite seasonings to make these croutons. As you are adding the seasonings, keep shaking the bowl to toss the seasonings evenly on the bread.
My favorites seasonings to use are oregano, sea salt, garlic salt, ground black pepper, parsley, and basil. I don’t really measure this out, but if you like to be precise, for four pieces of bread I use around…
· ¼ tsp oregano
· ¼ tsp garlic salt
· ½ tsp parsley (more because chunks are larger, and you want this spread on all your croutons)
· ¼ tsp sea salt
· 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
· ¼ tsp basil
You can change these as you like, that’s the beauty of croutons.
4. Spread the croutons as evenly as possible on a baking sheet greased with butter and put in the oven for around 10 minutes
5. Take out and enjoy!