No Bread Left Behind Croutons

A few years ago our local council started a food waste collection service. I absolutely see it as a service now, but the truth is, we were told we were going to be part of the trial program and they replaced our garbage bin with one half the size. It’s one thing to tell people they have to be more careful about throwing food away. We quickly found out it’s a completely different thing to only have half the space to get rid of anything.

I want to believe I’m the kind of person who cares for the planet and does my part to make it a better place for everyone. I can be that person. I can also be lazy. And a person who becomes irrationally annoyed when my bad habits are made very, very clear to me almost overnight. We’ve always been at least average at keeping on top of our recycling but wow, did I find out we were terrible about throwing food away. It’s embarrassing to me now. Which, of course, was the entire point of the program. Well, not my personal embarrassment, but making me aware of a problem that nearly everyone contributes to and nearly everyone can fix in their own households.

Domestic food waste is the uncomfortable, pointy end of some really big, very global problems. There are incredible food redistribution charities working all over the UK (like FareShare, The Felix Project, and City Harvest) but the call is coming from inside the house. According to the ONS, UK households are the biggest contributor to food waste in this country accounting for a mind boggling 70% of the total. I have to imagine that’s at least partly because there are millions of people in millions of households not aware of how much usable food they put in the garbage every day.

Like bread. It is one of the most thrown away foods in the UK. As my friend Anna says, “That just does my head in.” End pieces of sliced bread that no one wants? Little bit stale? You got a new loaf so the last three pieces of the old loaf go in the bin? I’ve done all of those things. Why? Because it was easier. Easier than toast? Yes. Easier than croutons? Yes.

When I learned more and got mad about it I decided eating more toast and croutons was something I can do. Often when we’re presented with overwhelming problems like climate change and food poverty it’s easy to think there’s nothing one person can do. This is actually a case where you can do something. It doesn’t even take a ton of effort. You can make croutons. And then you can use the croutons to make other great things like this.

Baking Making

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Depends how much bread you’re using

30 minutes from waste to wow

Ingredients

Any bread you were about to throw in the bin

Oil

Salt and Pepper

Maybe some herbs but totally optional

Instructions

I encourage you to take a very wide view of what constitutes “bread” in your kitchen. Rolls, baps, bagels, croissants, pitta, naan. Anything that can be seasoned and crisped up in the oven counts here. If you don’t normally do any kind of food prep weekly you can always put your crouton candidates in the freezer and make a bigger, mixed batch later.

When you have enough BREAD like products cut them all up into bite sized pieces. We like them quite large around here because you get an awesome crunch and they can carry even more flavor but make them look like something you’d like to eat. Put them in a big bowl.

Pour a generous amount of OIL over them and get your hands in there to mix it through all the bread pieces. You don’t want anything dripping in oil but you do want everything covered.

Add SALT and PEPPER to the bread and mix it in with your hands again. This is also the time to add any fresh or dried HERBS. Just chop them up and mix them through.

Lay everything in a single layer in a baking pan and put in a 200C oven for 12-15 minutes depending on how big your croutons are. I like them pretty golden for a good crunch.