Homemade garlic croutons are SUPER easy to make. Delicious, crunchy topping for a chopped salad or tomato soup.
Easy Garlic Croutons
PICTURE IT: a creamy caesar salad (or whatever, any salad!) topped with delicious HOMEMADE GARLIC CROUTONS.
Once I discovered how to make my own croutons, I haven’t even looked at a store-bought crouton. Making croutons is ridiculously easy, and I love that you get to customize your own flavor to make your salad unique.
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My favorite flavor is, hands down, garlic because…Garlic! It goes with basically any type of salad, and I can never have enough garlic in my life.
This recipe for homemade croutons takes about 20 minutes. You can prep your salad or warm up some soup while you’re waiting for the little heavenly cubes to bake.
These homemade garlic croutons are:
- crunchy
- easy to make
- full of garlicky flavor
- vegan (most store-bought bread loaves are vegan!)
- a delicious topping on a salad or soup
- and a tasty snack on their own, according to my son
How to Make Homemade Croutons
First, you’ll need to slice up some bread into cubes. A serrated bread knife is pretty crucial otherwise you’ll have smushed bread pieces.
Throw your bread cubes into a bowl and toss with spices (garlic, parsley, and salt). Drizzle some oil into the bowl and toss until the bread is evenly coated in oil & spices. The bread cubes should feel slightly oily to the touch, but not super dry and not soggy.
If you do not want to use oil, you can substitute with aquafaba – see the notes in the recipe card below.
You’ll then bake the bread in a 400-degree oven (Fahrenheit) for 14-18 minutes. I like to toss around the croutons 1-2 times to get an even crunch. Baking time will vary on the freshness of your bread. Stale bread will take less time since it’s already dried out a bit, while fresh bread takes a little bit more time. Another factor that could vary the time is the type of bread you use. Just keep an eye on it so you don’t end up with ugly burnt bread cubes. That would be a sad day!
Ingredients
- 4 cups bread cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tsp oil *
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Toss together the bread cubes and spices in a bowl.
- Toss in the oil until well distributed - make sure the bread is evenly moistened.
- Spread the bread cubes out evenly onto the baking sheet. Bake for 12-18 minutes, tossing a time or two. Time will vary based on freshness of bread and type of bread used.
Notes
If you make a bunch, can you store them in the freezer?
I think that should work, just make sure they don’t have any moisture left in them. And then thaw at a lower temp in the oven.