Tasty homemade spicy croutons
Bread reuse
Post-Holidays Recipe
Hey guys!
Long time, no see!
I am back and ready to start the year with a really fast recipe that can only be described as post-holiday!
I believe every one of you had a good time enjoying the home comfort and all of the holiday dishes that come along with it. Sometimes there are some leftovers that we try to finish but eventually, we can’t.
This is a recipe just like this - how-to reuse your bread and turn it into tasty and spicy (not hot, just spicy) croutons. The ingredients are easy to find in each kitchen, and the recipe is so fast you barely feel like cooking!
Ingredients
| Amount | Product | |
|---|---|---|
| 400 gr | bread (sliced) | |
| 3 heads | garlic | |
| 80-100 ml | olive oil | |
| 2 tbsp | salt | |
| 7 tbsp | sweet paprika (sweet dried peppers) | |
| 2 tbsp | sharena salt(typical Bulgarian spice mix that includes salt, paprika, basil, cumin, thyme, dried fenugreek leaves, and summer savory) |
Preparation
| Process | Time |
|---|---|
| Preparation time | 15 minutes |
| Cooking time | 12-15 minutes |
For the preparation, I would suggest starting with the most time-consuming part - garlic extraction!
Put the olive oil in a frying pan and heat it up to medium. Then throw the garlic (only cleaned, not cutting) and wait for it to start frying. Leave it on 2-3 (my stove ends with 9 as a power indicator) for the next 10 minutes.
After that, take the slices of bread and cut them into small cubes. You can go with whichever size you prefer. For me, a bit bigger is better since this is pre-baked bread and will easily get soaked in the soup or the dressing. (There are smaller croutons sold but their manufacturing process is quite different.)
Place them in a bowl or on a tray.
Now mix all of the spices and the seasonings together. Start pouring them on top of the bread cubes. Then mix everything really well so the spice mix is evenly applied through all of the cubes.
By now the 10 minutes should be gone and you can take the pan with olive oil and the garlic out of the stove.
Place them on a baking tray and using a spoon gradually pour the olive oil with the garlic on top. Using the spoon mix everything well so all of the olive oil gets soaked up by the bread cubes.
Your croutons are ready for the final step of the process - cooking.
Place them in a preheated oven around 140 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. After that check on them and see if they need a couple more minutes.
Et voila! Your homemade croutons are ready and they smell amazing! The olive oil made them crunchy and that perfect spicy crisp is appealing even on its own.
Of course, they are a good companion to a nutritious salad or some delightful homemade cream soup (I will be sharing a recipe in the next couple of days! I promise it’s one of a kind!).
I hope you have enjoyed my recipe, guys! Please, I will be more than happy to hear some feedback and maybe even photos, if you decide to prepare this at home!
Let me know what you and your family think of those croutons and are you willing to prepare them again?
Thank you in advance for sharing! Try to not waste food, not only around the holidays!
Stay tasty,
Chef Dimitrova