Creative Dishes To Make With A Baguette

Given its size, it's tough for one or two people to eat a full baguette while it is fresh and before it turns hard or stale. Though baguettes are delicious plain, with butter, or as a side to another dish like soup or salad, there are tons of other ways you can put the crusty bread to use. Whether you are looking to use your leftover baguette for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even as a side or topping, there is no shortage of recipes you can follow to keep the bread from going to waste. 

Some of the more obvious dishes to make with a baguette include things like bruschetta, garlic bread, or croutons (via Queens Journal). These dishes are perfect for bread that is getting harder by the minute. Not to mention, these are very easy dishes to make. However, there are other more creative ways you can put your baguette to use. Some of those recipes that Queens Journal recommends include twists on classic sandwiches, like a grilled cheese sandwich and a BLT topped with avocado. Another unusual means for using up baguette is to soak it in egg mixture to turn it into French toast, according to Queens Journal.

French baguettes are typically made with just wheat flour, water, yeast, and salt, which means they are rather versatile. For more inventive dishes that call for baguette, Taste of Home suggests topping homemade French onion soup with the crusty bread. Food and Wine, on the other hand, proposes making a strata with your remaining baguette. According to The Pioneer Woman, a strata is simply a savory bread pudding or an egg casserole that incorporates bread into the dish too. That means you could make the dish with almost any filling you would like. From vegetables or lump crabmeat, as Food and Wine suggests, to your favorite omelet or frittata fillings, it will likely work in a strata. 

If you're looking for something really easy, simply toast the baguette and top them with anything you have on hand for an excellent crostini. Whether you have cheese, fruit, vegetables, meats, or spreads, it can more or less go on top of a bite-sized crostini and work well (via Martha Stewart). When it comes to baguettes, there's no reason to limit yourself.