My children love croutons! Admittedly, I love croutons as well. I think they are a fabulous snack all by themselves or tossed into a soup or salad. Most people don’t realize how easy it is to make their own croutons. These gluten-free cornbread croutons are so easy to make and so delicious!
Throughout the week, we eat many meatless meals “just because” but during Lent our family never eats meat on Fridays so I try to get creative with easy and vegetarian Friday meals. This past week, I decided to serve Black Bean Soup with Cornbread Croutons. It was a great combination.
For this “recipe” I used leftover corn bread, sliced it into crouton sized pieces, drizzled them with olive oil and spices, and toasted them in the oven. So easy! So delicious! Bob’s Red Mill makes a great gluten free Cornbread Flour Mix and one package makes a large amount of corn bread – even too much for the six of us to eat. A few days after I made a batch of corn bread I still had about 1/2 of it remaining. Croutons are best made from bread that is not fresh – croutons are the perfect use for bread that is a few days old.
Directions: Cut bread into bite-sized pieces, put into a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with your favorite spices – you can use sea salt, crushed garlic, pepper, or nothing at all. Gently toss the bread using your hands or two large spoons. Spread bread on a cookie pan (I used parchment paper to prevent sticking.) Cook at 375 degrees for about 20 to 25 minutes. Using a spatula, roughly turn the bread about halfway through the cooking time. If your oven seems to run hot, you might be done by 20 minutes.
A couple of my favorite cornbread recipes …
Sweet Cornbread Muffins (Gluten-free)
Bacon and Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins
Holy Hot Habanero Cornbread (Gluten-free)
Oooo…cornbread croutons….wonderful idea.
@briarrose – thanks! i hope you try them out – let us know how you like them!