The Delicious Boxed Snack That Should Replace Your Salad Croutons Immediately

Many people agree that salads are much more satisfying with a lot of contrasting flavors and textures. Crisp lettuce, creamy dressing, chewy bacon or dried fruit are common ingredients, but a salad just isn't complete without the crunch of croutons. A lot of people use stale French bread for croutons, but really they can be made from surprising sources, like cornbread and the breakfast favorite, bagels. As it turns out, croutons don't even necessarily need to be made from bread at all; in fact, Cheez-It crackers can add major crunch, flavor, and interest to many kinds of salads.

The cheesy bite-sized snack can certainly replace your normal croutons by swapping the two outright, but (as you can imagine), skewering a Cheez-It cracker on your fork can only result in splitting the cracker in pieces. To get the crunch and flavor of these super-cheesy crackers on every bite of salad, Cheez-It recommends crunching them up and toasting them first. On its website, Cheez-It posted a recipe for Extra Toasty Cheez-It Cracker Caesar Salad. A generous amount of ground crackers are added to a hot skillet with melted butter and grated garlic, and everything is tossed together until the cracker crumbs are toasted. These are tossed together with chopped lettuce, parmesan cheese, homemade Caesar dressing (or you can doctor up a bottle of store-bought dressing), and some whole Cheez-Its. You get the crunch and that unmistakable jolt of cheddar cheese that the brand is known for.

Because Caesar salad has a good bit of parmesan cheese in it already, adding a cheese-flavored cracker to the mix makes sense. But you don't need to limit this idea to a singular salad. Any salad that you'd put croutons on — and even some you wouldn't — can be delicious with crushed Cheez-Its, especially since there are now so many flavors of the cracker. Cobb salads are not traditionally made with croutons, but you probably don't miss them with all the other flavors going on with this salad. With that said, you could try some crushed Hidden Valley Ranch flavored Cheez-Its on this. Because the salad already has blue cheese on it, the ranch flavored crackers won't compete with the cheese the way the traditional cheddar crackers might.

Chef salads are also heavy on the toppings, which usually include some type of cheese. Try the Cheddar Jack variety of Cheez-It or even the Smoked Cheddar kind. Italian chopped salads can get a hit of crunch and flavor from the Italian Four Cheese type of Cheez-It; spinach salad with bacon dressing would be delicious tossed with Cheez-It Smoked Gouda crumbs or even the brand's collaboration with Wendy's: Baconator snack crackers. Ultimately, you can just toss your favorite greens with your favorite toppings and dressing and dust the whole thing with any flavor of the cracker, and it will rival any crouton brand on the market.