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Turn Leftover Keto Bread Into Crispy, Savory Cubes for Stuffing, Salads, Soups and More
If you make your own keto bread, don't throw away those last few slices, uneven ends, or pieces that have started to become a little stale. They can be transformed into something incredibly useful: homemade seasoned keto bread cubes.
These little cubes are essentially keto-friendly stuffing cubes or croutons. Drying the bread in a low oven removes moisture and gives the cubes a firmer texture, while poultry seasoning, garlic, onion, and butter give them a savory flavor.
They're perfect for keto stuffing, but that's only the beginning.
Sprinkle them over salads, float a few on top of soup, add them to casseroles, crush them for a crunchy topping, or simply keep a batch on hand whenever a recipe calls for bread cubes.
And because you make them yourself, you control exactly what goes into them.
Homemade Seasoned Keto Bread Cubes
Makes approximately 2 cups
Ingredients
2 cups keto bread, cut into approximately 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon melted butter or olive oil
3/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
Black pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat the oven to 250°F.
Cut the keto bread into approximately 1/2-inch cubes.
Try to keep the cubes reasonably similar in size so they dry at about the same rate, but don't worry about making them perfect. Rustic, uneven cubes work perfectly well for stuffing.
Place the bread cubes in a large bowl.
Drizzle the melted butter or olive oil over the bread.
Sprinkle with the poultry seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper.
Gently toss until the seasonings and butter are distributed throughout the bread.
Spread the cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Bake for approximately 30 to 45 minutes, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes.
The exact drying time will depend on the type of keto bread you use and how moist it is.
Remove the cubes when they are dry and firm throughout and lightly toasted around the edges.
Allow them to cool completely before using or storing.
The bread cubes will become even firmer as they cool.
Why Use Poultry Seasoning?
Poultry seasoning is particularly useful for stuffing cubes because it already contains a blend of herbs traditionally associated with stuffing.
Depending on the brand, the mixture may contain sage, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, pepper, or other herbs.
Because sage is often a prominent flavor in poultry seasoning, there is no need to add a large amount of additional sage to the bread cubes.
This keeps the ingredient list simple while still giving the cubes that familiar savory stuffing flavor.
Butter or Olive Oil?
Either one works.
Butter gives the cubes a richer, more traditional stuffing flavor.
Olive oil produces nicely toasted cubes and may be preferable when you want to use them as salad croutons.
You can even make two versions.
Keep one batch seasoned with butter and poultry seasoning for stuffing and another batch with olive oil, garlic, and herbs for salads and soups.
How to Use Keto Bread Cubes in Stuffing
This was the reason I started thinking about making keto bread cubes in the first place.
Cauliflower makes an excellent low-carb base for stuffing, but cauliflower stuffing can sometimes look and taste too much like seasoned cauliflower rice.
Adding a modest amount of seasoned keto bread cubes changes that.
For Keto Cauliflower Wild Rice Stuffing, combine approximately:
5 to 6 cups prepared cauliflower wild rice mixture
1 1/2 to 2 cups seasoned keto bread cubes
Mushrooms
Celery
Onion
Pecans
Chicken broth
Additional herbs and seasonings as desired
Add the dried bread cubes toward the end of preparation and gradually add broth.
The cubes will absorb some of the savory broth and vegetable flavors, becoming tender without completely disappearing into the cauliflower.
This produces a stuffing with visibly different textures: small pieces of cauliflower, browned mushrooms, vegetables, crunchy pecans, and recognizable pieces of seasoned bread.
It looks and eats much more like traditional stuffing.
Turn Them Into Keto Salad Croutons
You don't have to wait for Thanksgiving to make these.
For salad croutons, bake the bread cubes until they are especially crisp.
Instead of poultry seasoning, try seasoning them with:
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Italian seasoning
Black pepper
Parmesan cheese
Dried parsley
Rosemary
Scatter a small handful over a garden salad, Caesar-style salad, chicken salad, or chef salad.
You get the crunch of croutons without using conventional bread.
Add Them to Soup
A few crispy keto bread cubes can make a simple bowl of soup feel much more substantial.
Try them over:
Creamy mushroom soup
Broccoli soup
Vegetable soup
Tomato soup
Chicken vegetable soup
Creamy zucchini soup
Add the cubes immediately before serving if you want them crisp.
If you prefer softer bread pieces that soak up some of the broth, add them a few minutes earlier.
Use Them as a Casserole Topping
Crush the dried cubes slightly and scatter them over a casserole before baking.
They can add texture to chicken casseroles, broccoli casseroles, cauliflower casseroles, zucchini bakes, or other keto-friendly dishes.
Mixing the crushed cubes with a little grated Parmesan can create an especially flavorful topping.
Make Keto Breadcrumbs
Don't throw away the crumbs at the bottom of the container!
Completely dried keto bread cubes can be crushed or processed into keto breadcrumbs.
Use the crumbs as a topping for casseroles or anywhere you would normally use a small quantity of seasoned breadcrumbs.
This makes the recipe a great way to use nearly every bit of a homemade keto loaf.
Make Plain Bread Cubes, Too
Not every batch has to be seasoned.
If you aren't sure how you'll use the bread cubes, dry them without poultry seasoning.
Plain keto bread cubes can later be seasoned for whatever recipe you're preparing.
For example, plain cubes can become Italian croutons one day and stuffing cubes another.
What Keto Bread Works Best?
A relatively firm keto bread works better than an extremely soft or cake-like loaf.
Slightly stale bread is particularly useful because some of its moisture has already evaporated.
Homemade keto bread is ideal because leftover slices, heels, and imperfect pieces can all go into the batch.
If your keto bread is especially moist, simply allow additional oven-drying time.
The goal isn't merely to brown the outside.
The inside of the cube needs to become dry as well, particularly if you're storing the cubes for later use.
How to Store Keto Bread Cubes
Always allow the cubes to cool completely before storing them.
If they're still warm when placed in a container, trapped moisture can soften them.
For short-term use, keep thoroughly dried cubes in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
For longer storage, freezing is the better option. Place completely cooled cubes in a freezer-safe container or bag and remove what you need for future recipes.
If they lose some of their crispness after storage, spread them on a baking sheet and warm them briefly in the oven before using.
Nutritional Information
The nutrition of homemade keto bread cubes depends primarily on the keto bread you use.
For example, if the bread used for 2 cups of cubes contains 400 calories, 20 grams of fat, 32 grams of protein, 24 grams of total carbohydrate, and 16 grams of fiber, adding 1 tablespoon of butter would bring the approximate batch to:
Entire 2-cup batch:
Calories: approximately 500
Fat: approximately 31 g
Protein: approximately 32 g
Total Carbohydrates: approximately 24 g
Fiber: approximately 16 g
Net Carbohydrates: approximately 8 g
Per 1/4-cup serving, based on 8 servings:
Calories: approximately 63
Fat: approximately 4 g
Protein: approximately 4 g
Total Carbohydrates: approximately 3 g
Fiber: approximately 2 g
Net Carbohydrates: approximately 1 g
These numbers are an example rather than a universal nutrition calculation. Keto breads vary considerably in their ingredients and carbohydrate content.
For the most accurate nutritional information, calculate the nutrition from the exact keto bread recipe or commercial keto bread you use, then add the nutrition from the butter or olive oil.
The dried herbs and seasonings contribute only small amounts to each serving.
Don't Waste Leftover Keto Bread
One of the best things about this recipe is that it turns something you might otherwise throw away into another useful keto ingredient.
A couple of leftover slices can become salad croutons.
The heel of a loaf can become casserole topping.
Several slices can become seasoned stuffing cubes.
And a collection of odds and ends from homemade keto bread can be dried and saved until you have enough for your next recipe.
Making homemade keto bread cubes isn't complicated, but once you start keeping them on hand, you may discover all sorts of ways to use them.
Stuffing may be where these seasoned keto bread cubes begin, but salads, soups, casseroles, and crunchy toppings make them useful all year long.
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