Stop wasting bread – make croutons!
I recently read that 32% of bread is thrown away in the UK. This is a staggering waste of this food staple. It is so cheap that we don’t value it, so it is easy to eat half a loaf and then chuck the rest if it is a bit stale or mouldy. I am always looking for ways reduce food waste – and save money – and there are endless recipes to stop wasting bread. Be it bread pudding, breadcrumbs, bread and butter pudding, apple Charlotte or gazpacho, there is much you can do rather than chuck those unused loaves in your bin.
My latest favourite way to stop wasting bread is to make croutons, especially now that soup season is upon us. They are so easy and quick. If you have never made croutons, give this a try and I swear you will never buy them again.
The quantities below are a bit loose, as it depends how much bread you have to use up.
Garlic and oregano croutons
Ingredients
About a third of a loaf of stale bread. If it is mouldy at the crusts, be sure to remove these.
Garlic oil
Dried oregano
Salt
Method
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade or equivalent. Chop your bread into cubes. How big or small is up to you, but I like them around 1 to 1.5 inches square so that they are crispy throughout. Place them in a bowl and drizzle on your oil, until they are fairly evenly coated but not soaked. Add a teaspoon or two of oregano plus a teaspoon or so of salt and toss to mix. Grease a baking tray and spread them over in a single layer.
Place the tray in the oven for 5 minutes. After this take them out and toss them, then give them a further 5 minutes to crisp up. Et voila! Crispy and delicious croutons in about 15 minutes. They are delicious with soup, on salads or even just as a snack.
Once cool they can be stored in an airtight jar and will last a week or so. You can vary the seasonings depending on what you have. If you have no garlic oil, crush a clove finely and mix with the oil before pouring over.
What do you do to stop wasting bread?
For more food ideas, see my frugal recipes page here.
I usually blitz mine in the blender and add to mince, onion, garlic, an egg and some herbs to make some meatballs. They are delicious with spaghetti and sauce or in a stew.
The croutons look delicious too. Must make these for soup and for Caesar salad, when salad season comes round again!
When there are just one or two people in the home, I find it easier to keep bread in the freezer, and take out what ever is needed, as it’s needed. One of my kids who had been flatting taught me to do this.
We do the same. Because we had a student we were going through whole loaves and had some leftover, hence the croutons. We loved them though – it’s almost worth letting your bread go stale !
I do this. When I buy a sliced loaf, I bag up 1/2 the slices in pairs, and put in freezer straight away; the rest of the loaf gets eaten over the week before it goes stale.
I do the same with milk: 1/2 goes straight into the freezer and the rest gets used up over the week while fresh.
There are only two of us so I too keep bread in the freezer, and take out enough for each use. Walmart has their French bread marked down 50% after the sell by date. I cut it into serving sized pieces and freeze it in individual pieces. That way I always have crusty bread on hand to go with soups and stews.
Made into breadcrumbs, leftover bread can be useful as a thickener in stews and soups (not too much though as it goes a bit gluey! Also roll slices flat with a rolling pin and pop in oven when cooking other stuff. …..crispbreads to use with cheese, or dip into hummus etc.
Love the crisp bread idea. Will try that!