3 Store-Bought Salad Croutons That Are Even Better Than Homemade
In my family, we eat croutons like they’re chips: straight from the bag, by the handful, with abandon. Do you blame us? A well-made crouton is a thing of beauty; the next best thing after sliced bread — buttery, crisp, and ready to make their way into salads, soups, or just right down your gullet.
Croutons are easy enough to make at home, but I don’t always have a partial loaf of slightly stale bread lying around. Do you? (If yes, can I come over?!) That’s when those store-bought options really come in handy. There are a lot of great options lining grocery shelves that rival homemade croutons.
I tried as many bags as I could get my hands on, and even roped in some of my crouton-obsessed family members. We stuck most to “classic” or “garlic and butter”-flavored bags, and, to keep things consistent, judged them by three criteria: seasoning, crunch, and versatility (are they good for way more than salads, like topping soups, making stuffing, and crushed over cooked veggies). These are the three that stood out.
1. Mrs. Cubbison’s Classic Seasoned Croutons
Chances are, if you were to look up the dictionary definition of a crouton, you’d find this exact bag pictured alongside it. Its minimal yet effective frills (in the form of the distinct rosemary seasoning), make Mrs. Cubbison’s Classic Seasoned Croutons an instant winner.
With one of the best crunches of the bunch, these classic croutons are an all-around staple. They taste like what I’d call Very Good Restaurant Side Salad Croutons (a high compliment), and versatile enough to have me dreaming about topping a bowl of cheesy French onion soup — in 90 degree heat.
Buy: Mrs. Cubbison’s Classic Seasoned Croutons, $2.19 for 5 ounces at Instacart
2. New York Bakery Texas Toast Garlic & Butter Croutons
There’s buttery croutons and then there’s New York Bakery Texas Toast Garlic & Butter Croutons. These shot to the top of my own ranking purely on how often I kept reaching into the bag to add a few more to my salad. Garlicky, buttery, with a cartoonishly loud CRUNCH!, these croutons are for all the Texture People out there.
With a flaky, airy crumb (that still manages to taste light with all that butter), New York Bakery Texas Toast croutons would be my all-the-time salad topper, especially when you’re like “Hmmm, this salad needs a bit of decadence.”
Buy: New York Bakery Texas Toast Garlic & Butter Croutons, $2.17 for 5 ounces at Instacart
3. Mrs. Cubbison’s 100% Parmesan Crisps
If the Texas Toast croutons formed my mostly crouton salads, the 100% Parmesan Crisps — made by yes, the same Mrs. Cubbison’s — were the ones that barely made it to my salad in the first place. Why is that? Because I ate them right out of the bag. Nearly all of them. It was very much a “Three for my salad, five for my mouth” situation.
These parmesan crisps do double-duty here. If you’re planning on adding cheese and need crunch for your salad, both are very much satisfied by Mrs. Cubbison’s 100% Parmesan Crisps. A nutty, tongue-tingling, crispy bite-size nest of Parmesan packs so much flavor to the square inch, you’ll find me adding these on top of my pasta, tomato soup, and as a bread crumb alternative for frying chicken (if they last long enough in my pantry).
Buy: Mrs. Cubbison’s 100% Parmesan Crisps, $3.75 for 1.98 ounces at Instacart
Do you have a go-to brand of croutons? Tell us about it in the comments below!