Easy 4-ingredient croutons made with lots of garlic and olive oil! These quick and easy homemade croutons are chewy, crunchy, and the perfect salad topper!
Say hello to my secret weapon for diner parties, potlucks, and elevating salad night to something special: HOMEMADE CROUTONS.
A.K.A. the best way to use up old bread and get salad-apathetic people excited to dig into a big bowl of greens.
In the sake of full disclosure, I’ve been making croutons for over a decade and up until now, when I wanted to share the process with you all, I’ve never even measured anything or used a timer- sometimes they were a little too salty, or a bit dry, or blackened to a crisp when I forgot about them, but for the most part, my off-the-cuff crouton experiments have been a success. So much so that I’ve even been known to bring croutons and homemade dressing to parties where there will inevitably be a few different salads in need of a little extra love.
And, somehow, despite literally just being bread that’s cut into cubes and toasted, people obsess over homemade croutons. Like, eat them by the handful, mound them onto of salads, get angry at you for being able to make something so good, obsessed. Hunt you down for the recipe and drive to the store to buy more bread so you can make them more croutons right this very instant, obsessed.
The best part? All you need to make homemade croutons is four basic ingredients and about 30 minutes. So, when you show up to a party with a big bowl of ’em and your friends get annoyed that they’ll never be able to go back to their bag of store-bought croutons after eating something so majestic, you can tell them to relax because it’s ridiculously simple to make them yourself.
All you need is:
Bread. Preferably a loaf of something crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, either fresh or a few days old. Pro tip: we love keeping a bag of stale/excess bread in the freezer to pull out and make croutons with!
Olive Oil. Extra virgin olive oil gives these croutons lots of flavor, plus that golden, crunchy-yet-chewy exterior.
Garlic Powder. Fresh garlic tends to burn in the oven, but garlic powder, added towards the end of the baking process, makes these croutons extra garlicky and delish. I like to keep it simple with just garlic, but these are great with extra spices like oregano, paprika, sumac, chipotle powder, etc.
Salt. Because duh. Unsalted croutons are a sad, sad situation.
Cut the bread into cubes, toss it with the oil and salt, and bake for 15 minutes. Toss with garlic powder, bake for another 5ish minutes, and voila! Croutons.
They’re golden, crunchy (but not so much so that you’ll feel like you might break your teeth chomping down on them), salty, garlicky, and totally awesome. If you happen to be a cheese lover, these croutons are also BOMB with a handful of finely grated parm or nutritional yeast tossed onto the pan, too.
Let’s do this!
If you make these Garlic + Olive Oil Croutons, let me know how they turn out by leaving a comment below, or taking a picture of your little cubes of joy and sharing it with me on Instagram. Happy salad-ing, friends!
Garlic + Olive Oil Croutons
Time: 30 minutes
Yields: 6-8 cups of croutons
Ingredients:
- 1 large loaf of crusty bread (we love using ciabatta or a baguette)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- Optional: 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan, 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast, or 1/2 teaspoon of other spices like oregano, paprika, chili powder, etc.
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper (optional, for easier clean-up).
- Cut the loaf of bread into 1-inch cubes and transfer them to the pan. Drizzle olive oil over the bread, sprinkle with sea salt, and toss with your hands to combine. DO NOT ADD GARLIC AT THIS STEP (it will burn!!).
- Bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle on the garlic powder and any optional additional ingredients, toss to combine, and bake for another 5-7 minutes, or until croutons are just turning golden brown (any darker than this and they’ll be suuuuper crunchy; I like to leave them with a little chew left in the center).
- Let croutons cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before serving warm on a salad, or allow them to cool completely before transferring to an airtight container.. Leftover croutons, should you have any, keep for up to 4 days at room temperature.
NOTES:
Choose a bread you love here- even a random assortment of leftover rolls or odd ends of bread that are slightly stale will work. I find breads that are naturally crusty on the outside and soft on the inside make the best croutons-something like sliced sandwich bread isn’t as good in this recipe, as it doesn’t yield the same crunchy exterior and chewy interior.
We like to keep a bag in the freezer for tossing odd ends of bread into, and when the bag gets full, we make croutons! If using random leftover pieces of bread rather than a full loaf, and you aren’t sure how much to use: just cut the bread into cubes and stop once your pan is full.
Be sure to check out my Shop page to purchase some of my favorite ingredients and kitchen equipment used in this recipe!