I don't know a soup that isn't enhanced by crunchy, golden croutons with a slight sprinkling of Maldon salt (must support the local industries) on top.
You can buy croutons in packets that cost the earth and a half and, to be honest, I don;t think they are really all that nice. They're not fresh, for a start.
My croutons start with the noggins of my home made bread. You know what I mean - the crusts either end of a loaf that are usually the last bits left (I use the first crust to cover the main loaf to keep it fresh) and which are just a little too stale for comfort and which one is inclined to chuck.
Well, I've stopped chucking them. At first I zizzed them into bread crumbs but I have enough breadcrumbs so now I have a noggin bag in the freezer into which I chuck my - er - well, noggins.
To be fair, this involves a hot oven and I had a hot oven because of the bread making. You could use a grill or a halogen oven. I chose to use my oven because it was already on. That's frugal! Heating it up specially would not be.
All I did was take two crusts (I make small loaves), let them thaw just a bit and then cut them into cubes of a size I wanted.
I popped them into a poly bag and splashed in some oil. As I am frugal it was veg oil from Aldi but olive oil might be nice or garlic oil . . . mmmmm.
I sort of tossed them around for a short time and then poured them into an oven dish, popped them in the oven, turned them after five minutes and in ten they were done. Gorgeous, crisp, crunchy hot croutons.
I sprinkled a bit of Maldon salt on top and added them, a few at a time, to my soup (home made, of course!!!) and enjoyed a most delicious lunch.
And it was very frugal!
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