The next time you make a salad, add homemade Parmesan croutons to take your greens to a whole other level. Like the top floor. The ease of preparing these croutons compared to the flavor added will leave you wondering why you don’t always have homemade Parmesan croutons on hand. I call this the Flavor Multiplier Effect (FME) something I just created based on all that economic theory I learned at Baylor in the eighties. Sounds official, doesn’t it?
Do you ever type a word and stare at it and think it just looks weird, and you are convinced you misspelled it? That’s how crouton looks to me today, but it’s correct. I looked it up. In the process of checking the spelling, I discovered the word originated in 1800-10 in France and means small piece of fried or toasted bread, sometimes seasoned, used as a garnish for soups, salads, and other dishes. So yes, these would be great on soup too. Not that soup sounds very good in this summer heat.
Anyway, for the Parmesan croutons…All you need is a few slices of sourdough bread (really you can use any kind but I prefer sourdough), a drizzle of oil (I use Rice Bran because it performs well in high heat, otherwise Olive Oil), lots of grated fresh Parmesan Reggiano (buy the good stuff!) and freshly ground salt and pepper. Cut the bread into one-inch cubes, mix everything together, spread on baking sheet and broil for a few minutes, turning once.
Never take your eyes off the croutons or you will have a burnt salad offering. Not good. 
Good stuff!
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
[tweetthis]the Flavor Multiplier Effect of homemade #Parmesan Croutons. @RicelandFoods @Baylor @TasteArkansas #summer[/tweetthis]
Musical Pairing:
Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs, Kelsey Grammer
I keep hoping to see the rice bran oil available in the grocery. I know they are working on small-scale bottle for the home consumer. I just really like the product. These croutons look sooooo tempting.
Me too! I’m almost out of the bottle I got last year:(