How to Make Croutons (Garlic Vegan Croutons)

How to make croutons from bread using an air fryer or oven. These garlic vegan croutons are simple to make and easy to adapt – a perfect way to use up stale bread!

Ever wondered what to do with those annoying leftover ‘heel’ parts of bread that no one seems to like? Or the bread you bought from the bakery 1-2 days ago that is now dried out? Two answers: homemade breadcrumbs and homemade croutons!

Learning how to make croutons is super simple and requires just a few ingredients and either an over or air fryer! In fact, air fryer croutons have become a new favorite of mine – they’re super crispy, take just minutes to cook, and are the perfect answer to my leftover bread conundrum (as a single-person household… this happens!)

In fact, the only issue is trying not to eat them all straight from the jar. Luckily, these homemade croutons are a simple way to add crunch and flavor to soups, salads, and casseroles – so I’m never running low on ways to use them up!

Plus, they’re so quick to make – you can whip up a batch in the time it takes you to heat up some soup or prepare a salad.

What are croutons?

A crouton (from the French word croûte, meaning “crust”) is simply a piece of twice-cooked bread, often cubed and seasoned, then used to sprinkle over salads and soups for crunch and extra flavor.

Traditionally it referred to baguette that had been lightly brushed with oil or ghee and then baked until crisp. However, these days, all sorts of bread can be used, seasonings vary widely, and you can bake, fry, or air fry these crunchy bread cubes to perfection!

Unfortunately, lots of supermarket versions these days are packed with unhealthy oils, milk powder (it seems to find its way into everything!), and sometimes cheese.

However, for this garlic crouton recipe, I’ve made vegan croutons with the help of olive oil, garlic powder, and oregano! Though keep reading for tons more flavor suggestions.

The Ingredients

• Bread: The type of bread you use is up to you; however, I prefer crusty, open-crumb options (which I find produce crispiest results with lots of crevices for the seasonings) – like sourdough croutons. White, brown (whole wheat), flavored, baguette, etc., will all work, though.
• Olive oil: Use good quality olive oil or other neutral cooking oil for the best results. Ghee (clarified butter) will also work if you don’t want vegan croutons.
• Seasonings: I used a simple combination of garlic powder and oregano (or Italian seasoning) for these easy garlic croutons. You can also add salt and pepper to taste. Keep reading below for several other seasoning options.

Other Flavor variations

• Garlic and thyme croutons: add 1-2 teaspoon of finely chopped fresh thyme to the above.
• Garlic and parmesan croutons: sprinkle the garlic croutons with a bit of parmesan just before baking/air frying them. It’s best to use a hard, aged cheese for the crispiest results. For vegan croutons, substitute the parmesan for nutritional yeast and/or a vegan parm alternative.
• Rosemary croutons: all you need is rosemary (fresh and minced), salt, and olive oil.
• Lemon pepper: add around 1 tablespoon lemon juice to the olive oil and 2-3 teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper.
• Italian herbs: add some Italian seasoning (1-2 tsp) to the garlic crouton recipe.
• Paprika: add a little smoked paprika to the garlic croutons.
• Chili garlic: add some chili flakes to the garlic oregano mixture. You could also substitute some of the olive oil for chili oil for even spicier results.

You can experiment with using other pre-made seasoning options, too, such as ranch seasoning or BBQ seasoning.

Let me know in the comments what your favorite way of seasoning homemade croutons is!

How to Make Croutons

Step 1: Prepare the bread

First, you’ll want to chop your bread of choice into even-sized cubes. I like to make mine around ¾-inch in size.

This won’t be as easy with any rounded bread loaves – but try to get them even-ish in size, so you don’t end up with some burnt while others aren’t cooked enough.

Step 2: Prepare the garlic seasoning and toss

In a large bowl, combine the oregano, garlic powder, and olive oil – stir well.

Add the bread cubes to the bowl and lightly toss to combine, making sure the bread is well coated.

Step 3: Cook the homemade croutons

How to make croutons in air fryer?

Spread the croutons across your air fryer basket. It’s best to do this in a single layer, though I often stack them slightly for a large batch.

Place in your pre-heated (if needed) air fryer at 375ºF/170ºC and cook until crispy and golden brown. For me, this took 6 minutes – no turning/shaking required.

The size and type of your bread, as well as the amount you’re making, and the air fryer model can all impact the time they need to cook. I recommend checking on them at the 4-minute mark and every 20-30 seconds after.

How to make croutons in the oven?

Spread the seasoned bread across a parchment-lined baking tray and bake in the oven at 375ºF/170ºC until crispy and golden. This will usually take between 10-15 minutes.

When making baked croutons, it’s best to flip them halfway to make sure all the sides are evenly browned.

Allow them to cool completely before using immediately or transferring them to an airtight container (otherwise, they may cause steam to build up and spoil your croutons).

How to Use

There are several ways you can make use of these homemade croutons, including:

• Salads: these will work anywhere you want to add crunch to a salad, but especially with Caesar salad. I also love them with massaged kale salad, easy tuna salad, and quinoa avocado salad.
• Wraps: like a Caesar salad wrap or other salad/lettuce wrap.
• Soups: especially tomato soup or gazpacho. I also really like these vegan croutons with other soups like Thai-inspired green pea soup, creamy butternut and carrot soup, or coconut curry pumpkin soup.
• Scrambled eggs: ditch the toast for a handful of croutons instead – the same goes for tofu scramble.
• As breadcrumbs: when you don’t have breadcrumbs, you can crush up these vegan croutons instead and use them to crust proteins, finish off casseroles, etc.

You could also sprinkle them over fondue, to top casseroles when the flavor matches, or bake them into quiches and other egg dishes like this tomato and egg tortilla bake.

How to Make Ahead and Store?

Make ahead: just like how you can save veggie scraps in the freezer until there’s enough for veggie stock, the same can be said for bread and croutons. You can store all your leftover bread (pre-cubed if possible) in the freezer, ready to make croutons when there’s enough.

Store: once prepared, store the garlic croutons in an airtight container at room temperature for 7-10 days.

I avoid storing these garlic croutons in the refrigerator as I find this is the hardest way to prevent humidity/moisture from making the croutons soggy/soft.

Freeze: you can store the prepared homemade croutons in an airtight container in the freezer for up to two months. Simply bake in the oven at 300ºF/150ºC until thawed entirely and re-crisped.

FAQs

More Recipe Notes

• If the bread isn’t dry (stale) enough: 1-2 days old bread is best for homemade croutons for the crispiest results. If your bread isn’t dry/stale enough, you can bake them for 5-10 minutes before starting with this recipe (200ºF/95ºC).
• To pan-fry the homemade croutons: aside from air fryer croutons and baked croutons, you can also pan-fry the croutons either with a bit of butter or oil. For vegan croutons, make sure to use dairy-free butter or oil.
• Be careful not to burn the croutons: the size of the croutons, dryness of the bread, and your cooking method will all impact how long these take to cook – so keep an eye on them to keep them from burning.
• Slice or tear the bread: there’s no need to perfectly cube the bread – you could also tear it if preferred. This will yield tons of crevices for the seasonings. However, they may not cook as evenly.

Other Bread Recipes

• How to make Greek pita
• Homemade breadcrumbs (fresh, dried, and Italian)
• 2-Ingredient Sweet potato flatbread
• Middle-Eastern Manakish dough
• Easy no-knead Turkish Ramadan pide
• Homemade garlic naan
• Simple multigrain bread
• Authentic homemade pita bread

If you try this homemade garlic crouton recipe, I’d love to hear your thoughts/questions below. Also, I’d really appreciate a recipe card rating below, and feel free to tag me in your recipe recreations on Instagram @Alphafoodie!