I get excited about croutons. I know. I’m a weirdo.

It’s just that I’ve been obsessed with the crunchy little bits of deliciousness since as early in my youth as I can remember. My mom served a salad at nearly every meal, and croutons were a pretty standard fixture at our table.

Crunch upon crunch was the name of the game. I still love big green salads and croutons madly and I, like my mom, have one nearly every day.

While the croutons in the bags are just fine most of the time, I really prefer Torn Croutons {homemade croutons} for a multitude of reasons. The most important of all, though, is that Torn Croutons {homemade croutons} hold onto the salad better.

What?

No really. The perfect cubes in the bags have a distressing tendency to congregate at the bottom of the bowl making the ideal bit of crunch with each bite a matter of fishing up a crouton from the depths of the salad bowl.

First world problems. Sheesh.

Torn Croutons {homemade croutons}, on the other hand, have an irregular surface that stays interspersed among the lettuce leaves and greens better, holds on to dressing, and generally makes nice in the salad more than the cubed ones do. The texture of Torn Croutons is dreamy, too.

Of course they’re crunchy, but they’re still far less dense than the commercially available croutons. They don’t tear up your mouth like bagged croutons can.

There are more advantages to making Torn Croutons, too, though. You can use up any bread that is on the verge of inedible staleness; waste not, want not combined with crunch for my salad makes my frugal heart go pitter pat.

You can customize the flavours of your Torn Croutons any which way you’d like, too. It’s a beautiful thing.

The process couldn’t possibly be easier. You quite literally tear the bread into bite sized pieces with your hands, toss with some fat or oil, add spices and salt (or don’t), and bake in a moderate oven -shaking the pan from time to time- until crunchy. It’s that simple.

Torn Croutons in their natural habitat; a glorious salad. Oh, and this salad is coming up on Friday, so, um, come back?

Torn Croutons

Use whichever bread you have on hand. There will be a little difference in baking time based on several variables; freshness of bread, type of bread, etc…

Torn Croutons {homemade croutons} are a very low-maintenance recipe, but there’s one thing to keep in mind for optimal results; try to tear the bread into roughly equally sized pieces. You don’t have to bother with similar shapes, but ripping the bread to a similar size makes it cook at the same rate, which means you won’t end up with some underdone huge croutons and overcooked tiny ones.

When it comes to fat you have all sorts of tasty options. First and foremost, BACON GREASE.

If you have it on hand, it’s delicious on Torn Croutons. If you do want to use it, you’ll want to make sure it’s warm enough to be liquid before tossing with your torn bread so you can coat it more evenly.

If you don’t have or don’t want to use bacon fat, my next favourite option is extra virgin olive oil. It delivers a luscious taste that’s hard to beat on a Mediterranean style salad or lighter salad.

Third in line is a neutral oil or light olive oil. These don’t pack a bunch of flavour, but accomplish the job of adhering salt and spices/herbs to the bread and letting them get crispy without any bold added flavour.

I love a pretty basic garlic/onion combo on my Torn Croutons most of the time, because it is welcome in just about any salad I make during the week. Every now and again I’ll add some dried herbs or citrus zest. For instance, if I’m on a Greek salad kick, I’ll add oregano and lemon zest to the bread when I toss it with the oil.

I bake my croutons long enough that they’re crispy enough to last a couple of days when cooled and stored in an airtight container at room temperature. You can pull them out of the oven before that point if you’d like a crisp on the outside, soft on the inside crouton, just keep in mind that softer croutons are best when consumed within 3 or so hours of being made.

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If Main Dish Salads are your thing, we also have Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef Salad), Cheeseburger Salad, Greek Salad, Pizza Salad, Tex-Mex Cobb Salad, Spicy Southwestern Chicken Salad + Meal Prep, and Blackened Salmon Caesar Salad.

Torn Croutons {homemade croutons}

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Rebecca Lindamood

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Ingredients

  

• 1/2 pound of bread
• 1/4 cup oil or liquid bacon fat
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion

Optional but tasty:

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• the zest of a lemon

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Tear the bread into evenly sized small-bite pieces over a large mixing bowl. Gently toss in the salt, garlic, onion, and dried oregano and lemon zest if using. Drizzle the oil or fat evenly over the bread and toss gently with your hands or a wooden spoon to distribute the fat. Scatter in a single, uncrowded layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, shaking the pan every so often, until the croutons are dry to the touch and lightly golden brown in some places. Remove the pan from the oven and let the croutons cool on the pan. They will continue to crisp as they cool. Use within 3 hours, or cool completely and store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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