Don’t Toss Day-Old Bread: Easy Homemade Breadcrumbs

Vegan Schnitzel (Vegan on Board)

Day-old bread makes the base ingredient for homemade breadcrumbs, rather than buying from stores. You can use these for ‘breaded recipes’.

Easy to make, just tear or cube your bread, and bake in the oven at 150° C (approx. 300° F) for 15 to 20 minutes until completely dry and crisp, but not heavily browned. You can then pulse it in a food processor or blender to reach desired texture, from fine crumbs to Panko. 

You can mix in salt, pepper, garlic powder or Italian seasoning if wished. Store in an airtight glass jars for a few weeks. You can also store leftovers in labelled reusable silicone freezer bags, label and date.

Keep garlic/onion powder and salt away from pets. Keep fresh dough away from young children and pets. Never give stale bread (or any bread really) to garden birds or wildfowl, as it could choke (some contains salt) and fats smear on feathers, affecting waterproofing and insulation). Read more on safe havens for garden birds.

Unless you have a food waste bin (made into biogas), just bin acidic or spicy produce scraps like peppers, onion/garlic/shallot/leeks/chives, to avoid harm to earthworms and other compost creatures.

Recipes that use homemade breadcrumbs

These vegan meatballs (Cupful of Kale) are made with mushrooms and brown rice. For a combo of umami flavour and texture. These follow the Swedish tradition of adding allpice and nutmeg.

Keep mushrooms and nutmeg well away from pets.

Vegan mac and cheese recipes often use breadcrumbs on top.

What’s in Paxo breadcrumbs?

Paxo is the main brand of breadcrumbs sold in shop (in plastic packaging). To be fair, these are mostly vegan, though not as nutritious and cheap as homemade.

However the brand is owned by Premier Foods, a worldwide global food company that also makes many animal-foods like Mr Kipling cakes, Ambrosia and Bird’s custard, Angel Delight plus meat-based meals and sauces.