Croutons add crunch to soups, salads, pastas, noodles, eggs, and vegetables sprinkled or crumbled on top of the dish. You can grill grated cheese on croutons as you would for French onion soup, use crouton slices for tapas and pintxos, or tuck croutons under roast chicken to soak up the juices. These are our best crouton recipes for lovers of texture.
We seem to be perpetually making homemade croutons and always have croutons on hand in jars and containers. Because no matter how delicious Terence’s sourdough bread is, there always seem to be bread left over when he’s sliding another boule into the oven. If you’re not already making croutons see our recipe for how to make homemade croutons from stale bread.
Although there are many things to make with stale bread – you can make French toast, panzanella salad, pita crisps, fattoush, ribolitta Tuscan bread soup, Basque garlic soup, and more – croutons are one of the best ways to use up stale bread and homemade croutons are so easy to make.
To make croutons you just tear, slice or dice the stale bread, brush on olive oil seasoned with spices and herbs, bake the croutons, let them cool, then store them in an air-tight container or glass jar and they’ll keep for weeks. See our link above for more detailed instructions to making croutons.
You can make rustic croutons by tearing bread into uneven pieces, which are fantastic in salads, cut a stale baguette on an angle into even slices to use as a vehicle for tapas or pintxos, or dice a stale batard into cubes that can be sprinkled whole onto soups or crumbled onto pastas, noodles, eggs, or vegetables. There are so many ways to use croutons.
Now before I tell you about the many ways to use croutons to add crunch and texture to your food, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our original, epic, first-of-its-kind Cambodian culinary history and cookbook on Patreon.
Another way you can support what we do here is by using our links to book accommodation, rent a car, purchase travel insurance, or book a tour on Get Your Guide; shop our Grantourismo online store for fun gifts for foodies designed with Terence’s images; or buy something on Amazon, such as these award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, cookbooks for culinary travellers, or gifts for Asian food lovers. Now let me tell you about the many ways to use croutons to add crunch and texture to food.
Croutons Recipes for Ways to Use Croutons to Add Texture and Crunch to Dishes
These recipes with croutons show you how to use croutons to add texture and crunch to dishes.
Broccoli and Potato Soup Recipe with Cheddar Cheese, Crispy Bacon and Crunchy Croutons
Our broccoli and potato soup recipe is sprinkled with crunchy croutons, cheddar cheese and crispy bacon to makes a deliciously creamy broccoli potato soup with loads of flavour and texture thanks to the cheese, bacon, croutons, and optional but recommended toppings such as fragrant herbs, extra virgin olive oil, sour cream, and chilli flakes.
I love to use a mix of whole and crouton crumbs, created from pounding the croutons a little in a mortar and pestle and I like to combine the croutons with crispy bacon pieces before sprinkling the mixture over a dollop of sour cream plopped on top of the soup. It’s hard to beat the texture of croutons and crispy bacon combined.
To add even more texture and flavour, use the best quality sea salt and extra virgin olive oil that you can afford, shower on some fresh herbs, and sprinkle on some chilli flakes. If I’ve got guests over, I like to serve all the garnishes, condiments and croutons in small bowls on the table so they can help themselves and customise their bowls to their taste.
Broccoli and Potato Soup Recipe with Cheddar Cheese, Crispy Bacon, Crunchy Croutons
Spiced Pumpkin Soup Recipe with Sour Cream, Crouton Crumbs, Crispy Shallots and Chilli Oil
You’ll love this spiced pumpkin soup recipe if you love pumpkin soups. It combines two of my favourite pumpkin soups, an old fashioned Australian pumpkin soup and a tweaked Cambodian recipe from Khmer Royal Cuisine to make a classic pumpkin soup infused with spices.
The recipe is versatile. You could use virtually any member of the pumpkin or squash families – butternut squash makes the richest version – infuse it with whatever spices you have on hand (we recommend star anise, cinnamon and cumin) and garnish it with whatever fresh herbs and condiments you like (we use crispy fried shallots, chilli flakes, and chilli oil).
Along with the crispy fried shallots, croutons add crunch and texture, and in this case we use crouton crumbs. You can pound whole croutons in a mortar and pestle to create crumbs, which are fantastic sprinkled onto soups, stews, pastas, noodles, and salads.
If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, we recommend buying one. In the meantime, you can put your croutons into a cotton bread bag or sealed plastic sandwich bag, and bash them lightly with a meat mallet. Sprinkle the crumbs onto the soup or use a combo of whole croutons and crumbs.
Spiced Pumpkin Soup Recipe with Sour Cream, Crunchy Croutons, Crispy Shallots and Chilli Oil
French Onion Soup Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Soup with Grilled Cheese on Croutons
My fragrant French onion soup recipe makes one of the most iconic French recipes, a classic French onion soup, which I’ve given a subtle Southeast Asian twist. Inspired by French chef Raymond Blanc’s vegetarian French onion soup recipe, which uses toasted flour to add a nuttiness to the broth.
I’ve also added a little fine quality fish sauce to the soup for umami and some star anise for aroma and flavour to create a deeply-flavoured French onion soup with a slight Southeast Asian twist. Of course you could always leave out the spice and fish sauce for a more traditional French soup.
But one thing you can’t leave out is the sliced toasted baguette with grilled cheese. While you could use a fresh baguette you could also use crouton slices if you have them on hand for extra crunch. The beauty of using large croutons is that they start firm for longer and don’t go soggy.
French Onion Soup Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Soup with a Southeast Asian Twist
Grilled Corn Salad Recipe With Lime, Chilli, Lemongrass Mayo and Sourdough Croutons
This recipe for grilled corn salad with lime, chilli, lemongrass mayonnaise, and sourdough croutons and crumbs shows you how creative you can get with the ways that you use croutons. I probably wouldn’t have considered sprinkling croutons onto a Mexican inspired salad before Covid.
I conceived this recipe in the early days of the pandemic when we were cooking up and publishing new recipes here every day, and Terence, avid sourdough baker that he is, was pulling sourdough boules out of the oven every few days (if you’re new to sourdough baking, see his excellent easy sourdough beginner’s guide).
We had some grilled corn cob leftovers, along with lemongrass mayo from the char-grilled corn with lime butter and lemongrass mayonnaise recipe I’d made the day before, and I’d asked Terence to make some sourdough croutons and crunchy toasted sourdough crumbs, to give this fragrant grilled corn salad fantastic texture.
Grilled Corn Salad Recipe With Lime, Chilli, Lemongrass Mayo and Sourdough Croutons
Basque Pintxo Recipes for Basque Style Tapas
Our Basque pintxos recipe makes the Basque snacks called ‘pintxos’ in the Basque language or ‘pinchos’ in Spanish. Offered in bars in Spain’s autonomous Basque Country, most famously in the city of San Sebastian, pintxos are often likened to Spanish tapas but are more like Italian crostini.
These Basque style tapas are perfect for easy entertaining, casual gatherings and relaxed meals at home. As with the French onion soup recipe above, you could toast slices of fresh baguettes and use those as a vehicle for the delicious combination of ingredients you’re going to arrange on top.
However, you can also use whole croutons if you have them on hand. Croutons which will add more crunch and keep the pintxos crispier for longer, especially if you’re spreading ‘wet’ pestos on cream cheese on top, which is handy if you’re entertaining and want to make them ahead of your guests’ arrival.
Basque Pintxo Recipes for Basque Style Tapas for Easy Entertaining
If you have any other ideas as to how to use croutons to add crunch and texture to dishes, please let us know in the comments below.
