Easy Homemade Croutons

Easy Homemade Croutons ready in 30 minutes

The best homemade croutons ready in 30 minutes. Perfect to toss in you next salad, soup or even as a snack! This easy recipe uses bread, olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then baked in the oven until golden and crispy.

This is a basic recipe for making croutons, and you can switch up the bread, seasonings or even size of the croutons depending on how you’re planning to use them. You can use them in a Classic Caesar Salad, as a topping for Gazpacho or as the base for Panzanella Salad. They’re a quick and easy addition to any dish and deliver lots of texture and flavor.

Ingredients To Make Homemade Crotons

This is a quick and easy list. Like I mentioned, expand on the seasonings and experiment with what you like.

• Bread – Any crusty bread with some structure will work here. Sourdough is a great option, but you can also use ciabatta, a baguette, any type of boule or even use rye or pumpernickel to switch things up.
• Olive Oil – Good quality olive oil will add a lot of flavor to the croutons. You can also use butter if you like, bacon fat or any other oil you want.
• Salt – I love diamond crystal kosher salt, it’s my standard salt in the kitchen. Any good quality kosher or sea salt works here. I will stress, you do need to season these croutons. You want them to have lots of flavor. We are not into bland croutons around here.
• Pepper – Fresh ground black pepper adds just enough seasoning here so everything isn’t bland. Use this as a starting point, add in some garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, the list goes on.

How to Make Croutons

1. Get your oven heated
   Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). These croutons are getting oven baked rather than pan fried, so get that oven hot.
2. Cut or tear your bread
   Shape your croutons by cutting or tearing your bread into bite-sized chunks. Toss with plenty of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bake Croutons
   Scatter crotons on a sheet tray, making sure they are in a single layer. Bake for around 25 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Check doneness at 15 minutes, toss and keep checking until they’re done.
4. Eat up!
   Toss them in a salad, serve over soup, enjoy them however you like!

How to Store Homemade Croutons

I suggest making extra croutons. While they are minimal effort, if you’re taking the time to make croutons, make extra. I promise you will eat them. They are very delicious.

To store your croutons let them completely cool and stash them in an airtight container at room temperature. They should last about a week, but I guarantee you’ll eat them before that.

Tips and Tricks

I typically make croutons using frozen or stale bread. I’m not one to let things go to waste in the kitchen, and since I know I love croutons, I’ll freeze any leftover bread and then use that when I need to make a batch of croutons.

BONUS TIP: Cut or tear up your bread before freezing. It’s a bit of a shortcut later on, since you can directly toss the frozen cubbed bread in oil, season and bake. No need for the bread to thaw. They may take a few extra minutes to bake, but nothing major.

How to enjoy your homemade croutons

Classic Caesar Salad

The ever so popular salad to use those croutons in. Fresh romaine, lots of parmesan and that delicious creamy Caesar dressing. Combined with crunchy homemade croutons, it’s a classic for a reason.

Crunchy Chicken Caesar Salad Wrap

Crush up your croutons and add them to a chicken Caesar salad wrap. That extra crunch takes a basic Caesar wrap over the edge.

Artichoke Caesar Salad

Add those croutons into a Caesar-inspired salad with roasted marinated artichokes and instead of regular croutons, use bagels to make delicious bagel croutons.

Pink Caesar with Pumpernickel Croutons

This was a salad I made a while ago, but still love to this day. Use pink radicchio as the base, add in lump crab meat, and use pumpernickel bread for the croutons. A slight twist on a a classic crouton but with lots of added flavor.

Bitter Green Caesar

Use your croutons in a bitter green Caesar salad. This is a great option for winter when those bitter greens like radicchio and endive are at their peak. Add in some olives to roast along with the croutons, they get a little crispy and the extra salty bite is so good.

Add To Gazpacho

Use some garlic croutons as a topping to gazpacho. I love these as a topping to a watermelon gazpacho in the summer. They add some much needed texture and crunch to the soup.

As a base for Panzanella

Make these homemade croutons, but tear up the bread into big chucks and use as the base for a panzanella salad. Mixed with lots of ripe tomatoes, cucumbers and a pungent anchovy and caper dressing.

Grilled Chicken Paillard

A little twist on a classic chicken cutlet, use lots of crumbled or crushed up croutons as a topping to a grilled chicken paillard. You get all the flavor and crunch from a fried cutlet, with a lot less work, and less mess.

Variations on the Basic Crouton

Switch up the seasoning, Switch up the bread

Like I mentioned above pumpernickel is a great option, but go ahead and use rye bread, an olive or rosemary loaf, use whatever you like. Get creative with it.

Make Garlic Croutons

Sprinkled over garlic powder to give the croutons a garlicky kick.

Bagel Croutons

I made these once when I realized I had run out of bread, but did I have some bagels stashed in the freezer. Cut or tear up the bagels as you normally would and bake till crispy. And, if you use seasoned bagels, one step is already done. Everything bagel croutons or onion bagel croutons. Delicious!

Olive Roasted Croutons

Add in a handful of torn up olives to the croutons before baking. The texture of the roasted olives is delicious and they’re packed with flavor.

Chorizo Croutons

Roast some chorizo along with the croutons for some super flavorful and spicy chorizo croutons. The bread soaks up all the flavor from the chorizo and gets extra crispy oven-fried in the oil. They make a great topping for roasted pumpkin soup.

Crispy Parmesan Breadcrumbs

Add some extra crunch to any dish. Swap out the bread and use some panko breadcrumbs tossed with a tablespoon of grated parmesan. You’ll only need to roast them for about 10 – 15 minutes, so keep a close eye. Add them to a salad, or over a piece of roasted salmon or even as a topping to some roasted Brussels sprouts.

Crispy Roasted Chickpeas Croutons

Not interested in bread? Make some crispy roasted chickpeas and use those in place of croutons. Adds extra protein and is a gluten free option to classic croutons.