Recipe This | Air Fryer Croutons (2024)

Air Fryer Croutons. The original air fryer croutons recipe, showing you how to make croutons in the air fryer for any occasion. This air fryer croutons recipe is perfect for soups, salads, and a quick snack.

Air Fryer Croutons

Welcome to my air fryer croutonsrecipe. I originally published this as one of the first ever recipes on Recipe This back in 2015. I have updated it with new ways to enjoy your air fryer croutons as well as adding in more photos. We hope you enjoy the croutons update.

Back in 2015 when I originally shared how to make air fryer croutons, I was in the middle of creating lots of new soup maker recipes.

I wanted some delicious croutons to go with them and to make soup less boring for Dominic.

He has never been much of a soup fan. But give him soup with some type of bread and he is in the soup zone.

I will either make him air fryer croutons or he will make a batch of his air fryer bread rolls.

Both are delicious and perfect for soup.

But back in 2015 the only way I had ever eaten croutons was over soup and a couple of months later I had my first salad at Pizza Hut that included a batch of delicious garlic croutons.

From that moment on, every trip to Pizza Hut must include this yummy salad. It has plenty of croutons, lots of tomatoes, basil, and an addictive salad dressing.

Perfectly paired with a family cheese stuffed crust pizza.

So when one of our readers asked us if our air fryer croutons could be used in a Panzanella salad, we decided it was about time we updated our delicious air fryer croutons recipe to include not just soup ideas but salad ideas too.

Can You Make Croutons In An Air Fryer?

Yes you can and croutons in an air fryer are AMAZING. What I love most is the level of control that you have with air fryer croutons.

You can cook them for less and they will be like little bites of garlic bread. Or cook them for longer to make hard croutons that you would associate with a classic soup.

Air Fryer Homemade Croutons FAQ

I asked some of the Recipe This readers if they had any questions, they would like answering when I updated my air fryer croutons recipe and this is the 10 most popular questions that they asked:

Are croutons bread? Yes. Croutons are typically leftover often stale bread that has been drizzled with oil and reheated. It has often had extra seasonings added to it and it transforms old and boring bread into something amazing.

Are croutons fattening? Croutons are often deep fried or air fried leftover bread. Think of them as fattening as eating our air fryer toast with butter.

Can croutons be made in advance? Yes they can, but we don’t recommend making croutons in advance. This is because croutons are at their best just after they have been cooked. Allow them to cool and they will not be as good. However, you can chop your bread and get your ingredients ready in advance.

Can croutons be frozen? Again, if already made croutons will not be as good and you would still have to reheat the bread and transform them back into croutons. What I suggest instead is loading the freezer with spare bread ready for croutons and then defrost the bread and make the croutons as you need them.

Can croutons be used as breadcrumbs? Yes it can. Load leftover croutons into your blender and make into breadcrumbs. You must note that very crusty bread ends make awfully hard croutons. What I do is chop off the ends and add them to my breadcrumbs bag and use the rest for croutons.

Can croutons be used for stuffing? Absolutely! I do this a LOT. I will sauté my stale bread chunks in butter in the air fryer ready for stuffing. I will then load my croutons into my mixing bowl with the rest of the stuffing ingredients. Works perfectly every time.

Why are croutons so good? Because it is delicious leftover bread that has been tossed in either oil or butter and then reheated in the air fryer. They are like warm bread chunks that you have in salad or little bits of garlic bread heaven. You can also change ingredients for your mood.

Why are croutons so hard? Croutons end up hard if they have been cooked at a high temperature or if too much oil has been used. If you don’t like your croutons hard reduce the cook time.

When to add croutons to salad? I recommend adding the croutons to salad last. This stops your croutons from going too soft and ending up soggy because of the other salad ingredients.

When to add croutons to soup? I recommend adding croutons to soup last and loading them on top of your soup. I also recommend cooking croutons for soup a little longer. This makes the croutons harder and the soup soon softens them.

How Do I Make Croutons In Air Fryer?

To make croutons in the air fryer is this SIMPLE:

1. Slice up stale bread or bread rolls.
2. Toss in a bowl with oil and seasonings.
3. Air fry and eat.

Air Fryer Croutons For Soup

If you would like croutons for soup, I recommend a slight variation on the above basic crouton recipe.

1. Load small stale bread chunks with extra virgin olive oil, dried oregano and garlic puree into a bowl and mix with your hands.
2. Load into the air fryer basket and cook for 6 minutes at 200c/400f.

This will produce a harder crouton that will soak up and soften in a creamy soup. This will also be like croutons you purchase from supermarkets.

Why Are Croutons In Salad?

Let’s just call croutons in salad an Italian thing.

Thanks to the introduction of croutons in more and more Italian restaurants and Italian buffets more and more people have become obsessed with croutons in salad.

An Italian will often refer to it as a bread salad. Though many Americans know it as making a Panzanella. If you are not familiar with either, then think of these ingredients in a salad:

• Bread Cubes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Red Onion
• Lettuce
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Garlic
• Fresh Basil
• Salt & Pepper

I am sure you are licking your lips just thinking of a yummy bread salad made with air fryer croutons. The air fryer is often overlooked for using it to make salads and it should not be as it is amazing either for croutons or for something like making air fryer chicken breast for a chicken salad.

To transform your croutons into a salad you do this:

1. Slice cherry tomatoes in half. Thinly slice a peeled red onion. Shred and slice fresh basil and lettuce. Load into a bowl.
2. Season bread cubes with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, a teaspoon of garlic puree and toss.
3. Cook your bread cubes in the air fryer for 4 minutes at 200c/400f.
4. Load the bread cubes aka croutons into your salad bowl and lightly mix.
5. You now have an Italian bread salad!

What is so good about this version of croutons for salad is that they taste like little bites of bruschetta. You could even get fancy and tell your family you have made a bruschetta salad and add in some mini mozzarella balls.

Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!

Join The RecipeThis.com Community:

Facebook Group|Pinterest|Twitter |YouTube

Plus, don’t forget to subscribe below to join our email newsletter with updates of our latest recipes, latest freebies, our cooking stories, plus much more: