A great salad can be hard to find. It’s my professional opinion to not get bored of your salad. It’s easy to get in a groove of lettuce, tomato, and salad dressing. All salads need a little elevating and it’s so easy to do. I learned this trick amongst my many cookbooks and will never go back. All it is are left-over, stale, or day old bakery bread. Really, any bread works. In this case, I had an old French loaf with everything bagel seasoning on it. I didn’t add any seasonings like I typically do since it already had the gamut of greatness already on it (besides more everything bagel seasoning, why not?). The recipe below is my crouton recipe for ANY great salad. The big secret? Tearing it. Yup! no cutting, no slicing, no shapes, or crepes. The magic comes with tearing.
Try to get them torn in about the same size. That way you can avoid too many burnt pieces.
Dabble the olive oil on it and a dash of salt n’ peppa, oregano, and garlic powder. I love garlic salt with it…salty croutons, Yass!! Mix it with your hands so all the pieces get the olive oil on it. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. You may need to watch your first batch. Ovens can vary especially with an easily burnable item like toast. Ohhh, if I could count how many times I’ve burnt bread. I could make a living out of it.
I like to assemble my salad while I wait for the croutons. This salad happen to be one that was given to me. I thought it needed a little elevation. It had lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, olives, mozzarella, and some pepperoncini with a roasted red pepper dressing. Â It was divinity!!
Hope you enjoy.
Lulu ba-do
Real Croutons
Equipment
- baking sheet
Ingredients
- 1 old loaf of bread (preferrably sourdough or other good bread)
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tsp good flaky garlic salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven for 350 degrees. Divide the old or stale bread by tearing into even pieces. Lay flat on a baking sheet. Cover with olive oil, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Toss together well. Bake for 5 minutes, toss with spatula, then bake another 5-7 minutes. Watch carefully the first time you bake, ensuring peices arent burnt. You want to see them still white before golden. This way there is still a little chewyness in the crouton.