Air fryer croutons

Air fryer croutons are our favorites because they have all the crunch and taste of regular croutons but only a fraction of the fat.

It takes less than 10 minutes to make them, and a few simple ingredients such as olive oil and your favorite dry herbs. They are perfect for soups, salads, and stews.

Ingredients

Bread

Use any bread (French bread, baguette, Italian bread, sandwich bread, hot dog buns, sourdough bread, rye bread, white bread, or other). You can use bread made from wheat or gluten-free bread.

Both fresh and stale bread is ok for making croutons. However, fresh bread is a little harder to cut, and it takes an extra minute to get crunchy. One to two-day-old bread makes the best croutons because it's easier to dice and not too dry yet.

Extra virgin olive oil

We use hearth-healthy extra virgin olive oil instead of melted butter. The olive oil adds a delicate fruity flavor to the croutons.

If you are on an oil-free diet, you can omit the oil. The croutons will be less tasty but still perfectly crunchy.

Avocado oil is a good alternative to olive oil because it is also relatively healthy and heat resistant.

Salt and Pepper

Salt and black pepper are the basic condiments for air-fried croutons. Add more or less based on your taste and dietary preferences. We recommend using sea salt, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

If you are on a low sodium diet, you might consider replacing the salt with a potassium chloride salt substitute but talk to your doctor first.

Herbs and spices

Seasoning is the fun part where you can experiment and get creative. We usually play it safe and use dried rosemary and garlic powder to season our croutons. It's a great combination, and everyone will love it.

However, you can use many other herbs and spices. We advise using dried herbs instead of fresh ones because they are more resistant to heat. Fresh herbs burn easily.

Try dried oregano, parsley, sage, mint, basil, thyme, or Italian seasoning. You can add one or more dried herbs if you like.

Spices are also great for adding aroma and flavor. Try garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, red pepper flakes, curry powder, and chipotle powder if you want a hot smokey flavor. Some like to add parmesan cheese to add even more flavor. We prefer to keep this recipe dairy-free.

Instructions

Dice the bread

If your bread is stale and has a thick and hard crust, we advise removing it because it can get too hard in the air fryer, and we don't want you to chip a tooth.

To do so, cut the bread into slices first, then cut off the crust. This is often necessary with sourdough bread or with a rustic loaf. When cutting bread, use a serrated bread knife.

Cut each slice of bread into bite-size cubes of the same size, between ⅓-inch (0.8 cm) and ¾-inch cubes (2 cm).

You don't need to remove the crust if you use fresh bread or bread with a thinner crust like a baguette, sandwich bread, bread rolls, and so on.

Cut the bread into slices first, then cut it again into cubes.

Season and air fry

Preheat the air fryer for 3 minutes at 400°F or 200°C.

Transfer the bread cubes into a large mixing bowl. Add extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and your favorite herbs and spices. Mix well with a spoon or with your hands.

Transfer the bread into the air fryer basket. The bread can overlap. It doesn't have to be on a single layer.

Set temperature to 400°F or 200°C, and cook time to 5 minutes, and air fry, shaking the basket one time at around the 3-minute mark.

If you like crunchier croutons, air fry them a little longer, in increments of 2 minutes, shaking the basket every two minutes.

The croutons should be golden, light, and perfectly crunchy.