What can I make with sourdough bread?
Sourdough Bread is the most-wasted item in most kitchens and one of the most useful. Recipes using sourdough bread are below, organised from fresh to properly stale.
12 recipes with sourdough bread
Avocado Toast
Creamy smashed avocado on toasted sourdough with lemon and chili flakes.
American10m1Sourdough Bread
A tangy, chewy bread made with a natural starter culture
American300m1
Pizza Dough
Chewy, blistered Neapolitan-style pizza base.
Italian15m3Classic Ham Sandwich
A simple yet satisfying sandwich filled with ham and served on toasted bread.
American15m2
Monte Cristo Sandwich
Ham, turkey, and Swiss battered and griddled French-toast style.
American20m4
Croque Monsieur
French ham and cheese sandwich with bechamel and broiled gruyere.
French20m2
Fattoush
Crunchy pita salad with sumac and pomegranate molasses.
Middle Eastern20m4Reuben Sandwich
A classic sandwich filled with corned beef, sauerkraut, and melted Swiss cheese, grilled to perfection.
American25m4
Patty Melt
Griddled rye sandwich with beef patty, caramelized onions, and Swiss.
American35m4
Focaccia
Dimpled olive-oil enriched flatbread with sea salt and rosemary.
Italian45m8
Shawarma
Spice-marinated chicken shaved off a vertical spit into flatbread.
Middle Eastern50m6Korean Fried Chicken
Crispy fried chicken in a sweet and spicy Korean-inspired sauce
Korean55m4
Best uses for sourdough bread, fresh or stale
- 1Fresh: toast hard, rub with a raw garlic clove, and finish with good oil and salt.
- 2A day old: cube, toss with oil and season, and bake at 400F for croutons or a panzanella base.
- 3Properly stale: blitz into breadcrumbs and freeze them - they last months and rescue any weeknight dinner.
- 4Soaked in an egg-and-milk custard it becomes French toast or a savoury bake with almost nothing else.
What goes well with sourdough bread
Sourdough Bread is at its best with butter, garlic, olive oil, cheese, eggs and herbs. Any two or three of those, plus sourdough bread, is already a dinner rather than an ingredient list.
Storing sourdough bread
Keep sourdough bread at room temperature in paper or a bread box for 2-3 days - the fridge makes it stale faster. For anything longer, slice and freeze it, then toast straight from frozen.
Substituting sourdough bread
If you are out of sourdough bread, look for something that behaves the same way in the pan rather than something that tastes the same. Match the moisture level, the cooking time, and the richness, and adjust the liquid slightly if your substitute releases more water. When in doubt, describe what you actually have in the chat and Mr. Chef will rewrite the recipe around it.
Sourdough Bread recipes: common questions
- What can I make with sourdough bread and not much else?
- Plenty. With sourdough bread plus an onion, garlic, oil, and salt you already have the base of a skillet dinner, a soup, or a simple sauce. Add a starch - rice, pasta, bread, or potatoes - and it becomes a full meal. The recipes above are ordered so the ones needing the fewest extra items come first.
- What is the quickest sourdough bread recipe?
- Look for the entries above marked 20 minutes or less. As a rule, anything cut small and cooked in a hot pan beats anything roasted whole, and one-pan recipes save more time in cleanup than in cooking.
- Can I substitute sourdough bread?
- In most recipes yes, as long as the replacement plays a similar role - similar moisture, similar cooking time, similar richness. Swapping across roles (a watery vegetable for a starchy one, for instance) usually needs a change in liquid or cooking time too.
- How do I use up leftover sourdough bread?
- Fried rice, a frittata, a grain bowl, a soup, or a quesadilla will absorb almost any leftover sourdough bread without a recipe. If you want something specific, tell Mr. Chef exactly what is in the fridge and it will build a recipe around it.