A Quick Lunch on All Saints Day--Soup and Croutons

Today is All Saints Day in France, which means that almost everything is closed in Strasbourg. Desperate for lunch, I scanned my shelves. All I found that was lunch-like and would only take a few minutes to prepare was a box of butternut squash soup and a chunk of day-old bread. So, I decided to heat up the soup and make some homemade croutons. I learned that homemade croutons are one of the easiest ways to make a non-homemade dish look homemade back in college while visiting a friend's sister on spring break in Whistler, Canada. She made the yummiest garlic-herb croutons to add to a very simple salad. Now I'm a salad person to the core, but I was ready to ditch the lettuce and just munch on the croutons as a snack!


Since then, I've played with making croutons. I like to make mine in the oven, mostly because I don't have to babysit them like when I make them on the stovetop. All it takes is some bread, any bread, (cut into chunks), olive oil, and the seasonings of your choice. Today I used the leftover pain de campagne (a local wheat-based loaf), olive oil, and simple salt and pepper. Then I put them on a baking sheet and baked at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, checking on them a couple of times to shake and turn them over so that they became a nice golden brown. Often I chop up some garlic and add it in, but I was in too much of a hurry today. Feel free to add whatever herbs from your pantry you'd like!