What’s a Salad Without Croutons?

February 14, 2010 at 8:19 pm (Cooking, Salads and Sides)

A couple of years ago, I got an assignment for Country Living magazine to write about a store in New Preston, CT called The Smithy. The hook was that the shop only sold products that were grown or produced within 30 miles. In the course of reporting the story, I learned a lot about the local food movement and I began to pay much closer attention to where the food my husband and I eat was coming from. While we aren’t complete locavores (we’d practically starve to death during winter in the Northeast) I do try to buy seasonal or organic (or both) products whenever possible. One local item that’s available year-round is organic whole wheat sourdough bread from a bakery in Rhinebeck, NY called Bread Alone. It’s delish and, at $5 a loaf, I really hate to throw any of it away once it becomes too stale for sandwiches. So, I recently started using the leftover slices to make croutons. I cut the bread into squares, brush them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and  Johnny’s Garlic Spread & Seasoning. Then I bake them for about 15 minutes on each side at 400 degrees (my oven’s a bit off, so 375 is probably fine for most.) Here is a picture of the latest batch I made last night. We added them to a salad my friend Emily made of romaine, chick peas, feta, beets and red onion. To.Die.For.