Croutons: A Guide to Making Croutons for Soup

Although soup is often a delicious meal, some people may find that it lacks a little texture. Therefore, they choose to add something to the soup to give some crunch. One of the easiest and cheapest options is to add some croutons. The following is some information about croutons, why you should use them, and how to make them.

What Are Croutons?

Croutons are small cubes of fried or baked bread, They are most commonly used to add some crunch to a soup or to add a different texture to salads.

Why Should You Add Them to Soup?

There are three main reasons why people add croutons to soup:

• Texture– They give an element of crunch to your soup.
• Taste– They add extra flavour.
• Appearance– They can elevate the appearance of your soup.

Basic Fried Croutons

The most common way of making croutons is to fry them. The following is a simple guide on how to do this.

Ingredients

• Bread
• Oil for frying

How to Make Basic Fried Croutons

• Heat some vegetable or sunflower oil in a pan.
• Cut your slices of bread into strips approximately 1 cm. wide.
• Turn the slices 90-degrees and slice again to create cubes of bread approximately 1 cm. squared.
• Add the cubed bread to the pan and fry for 5 minutes until golden. You may need to turn them occasionally.

Healthy Baked Croutons

Traditional croutons have a high-fat content as the bread absorbs the fat during cooking. The following is a healthier option.

How to Make Healthy Baked Croutons

• Preheat the oven to full heat.
• Dice your bread into cubes measuring approximately 1 cm.
• Add the diced bread to a baking tray.
• Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the cubed bread has turned crispy and golden.

Garlic Croutons

A great way of adding an extra layer of flavour is to make garlic croutons.

Ingredients

• 2 slices of bread
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 ounce of butter

How to Make Garlic Croutons

• Measure out the butter and leave out in advance so that it softens a little.
• Preheat the oven to full heat.
• Crush your cloves of garlic and stir into the butter to create a garlic butter.
• Butter the slices of bread with the garlic butter.
• Dice the bread slices into cubes measuring approximately 1 cm.
• Put the cubed bread onto a baking tray and put in the oven.
• Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the bread cubes have turned golden brown and crunchy.

Baguette Slice Croutons

Although croutons are traditionally small cubes of baked or fried bread, an alternative is to serve a slice of toasted baguette on top of the soup. This is just a large crouton. One soup that traditionally includes a slice of toasted baguette is French onion soup.

How to Make Baguette Slice Croutons

• Preheat the oven to full heat.
• Slice the baguette diagonally into slices measuring approximately 1-inch thick.
• Brush a little oil onto each side of the bread.
• Put the baguette slices on a baking tray and put into the oven.
• Cook for ten minutes or until the bread is looking golden.
• Remove from the oven and turn over the baguette slices.
• Return the tray to the oven and bake for a further five minutes.

Alternatives

• You can also spread some garlic butter over the baguette slices before baking for extra flavour.
• Another option is to add some cheese at the end of cooking and return to the oven for 5 minutes so the cheese can melt and turn golden. If you do this, reduce the first session in the oven to 5 minutes to prevent the baguettes from burning.

How to Serve Croutons

There are two main ways to serve croutons:

• In the soup– you can sprinkle the croutons over the soup. If you do this and you want to eat your croutons while they are crunchy, then you need to eat them straight away. After a few minutes, they will absorb the liquid from the soup and give your croutons a soggy texture. This is a texture that some people enjoy and others do not.
• In a side dish– If you are serving soup to guests, then it is better to present the croutons in a side dish so that they have the option to add the croutons if they want. It also means that they have the option of when they want to add the croutons so they can eat them while they are still crunchy if they wish.

Additional Tips

• For more flavour, you can fry your croutons in flavoured oil.
• Serve the croutons on the side if you want to keep them crunchy.
• You can use stale bread, and it is a great way to use up the crusts from the end of loaves that often get discarded.
• If you are on a gluten-free diet, look out for gluten-free bread.
• You can use white, granary, wholemeal, brown, or any type of sliced bread you like.
• If you have leftover crusts or stale bread, then dice up the bread and store the bread cubes in a storage bag in the freezer to use at a later date.