Make Your Own Olive Garden Croutons With This Menu Item

It's no question that people love Olive Garden, not just due to its selection of delicious dishes, but also its tasty salads. Their popularity prompted the restaurant chain to mass-produce its dressing and croutons using its signature recipe. This makes them easily attainable for anyone unable to make it out to any of the chain's locations, but it can be agreed that nothing beats the homemade alternative. To this, Olive Garden recently joined the home-delivery game, allowing the at-home chef to either order the beloved croutons along with their salad, or make their own using Olive Garden's world-famous unlimited breadsticks. Olive Garden has certainly perfected the seasonings for its breadsticks and croutons, but one of the best parts of homemade recipes is that it allows for equally unlimited customizations.

To transform Olive Garden breadsticks into homemade croutons, begin by chopping them into bite-sized cubes — the size is left to the chef's preference, but it's recommended to be roughly about an inch. From here, they're drizzled in olive oil and seasoned with Olive Garden's signature garlic salt breadstick seasoning, which helps to crisp and flavor them before they're moved into the oven. One of the biggest differences when turning those breadsticks into croutons is how fresh they'll be, as they're coming straight out of the oven. Even after being allowed to cool, they'll introduce a noticeably different crunch to your salad as opposed to the premade ones.

Another major advantage to converting Olive Garden's breadsticks into croutons is the aforementioned opportunity to make them your own. Yes, you could absolutely use the seasoning Olive Garden provides for its breadsticks, but there are plenty of other options as well. A breakdown of Olive Garden's breadstick seasoning isn't readily available, but it can be determined that the topping is a garlic salt base, per the nutritional information provided by Olive Garden. As an alternative for those looking for that garlic flavor while minimizing their sodium levels, its powder sibling can be used instead. Those wanting an Italian herb-forward flavor that will complement Olive Garden Italian Dressing can add an extra dash of thyme, basil, and oregano to the croutons. 

It may come as a surprise that not everyone lives near one of Olive Garden's 900 locations. Fortunately, many comparable store-bought brands are out there. Walmart's Great Value breadsticks are said to be pretty close in flavor, although their twisted texture is noticeably different; others claim that New York Bakery Real Garlic Breadsticks are even more comparable. No matter where you stand, an important fact to know is that many store-bought brands are pre-seasoned, so any alterations would have to be made with that brand's specific flavors in mind. As they can be garlic-forward, adding some extra herbs or even the heat of cracked red pepper would be a nice complement to those breadstick croutons.