Salads are a summer lunch staple, full of leaves and greens. But if you’re finding that your salad isn’t quite hitting the mark or have that desired crunch, one baker shared her top tip for giving your next salad a makeover.

A common accompaniment to salads is typically croutons, especially if you’re tucking into a Caesar salad. New York-based baker Melissa, who goes by Baked By Melissa, swapped out classic croutons for a popular leftover for some added crunch and flavour. Instead, Melissa suggested using leftover pizza to make pizza croutons.

So if you have a leftover pizza sitting in your fridge from the night before, all you need to do is cut it up into small bite-sized pieces. Place the pizza bites onto a baking paper-lined tray, making sure they’re not touching one another.

Reheat in the air fryer for ten minutes at 190℃. While the pizza is cooking, whip up your desired salad.

Melissa’s salad recipe included lettuce, chives, dried oregano, olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, lemon juice, grated Parmesan cheese, and green olives.

Once your pizza croutons are finished cooking, they should have a delectable crunch. Add the pizza croutons to the salad, and give it a toss.

Melissa said: “It’s great, you should make pizza croutons, most def.”

Foodies were amazed by Melissa’s simple hack. Ashley wrote in the video’s comment section: “How have I lived 40 years not ever once considering PIZZA freaking croutons as a salad topping.”

Waldo said: “When you diced up the pizza i was slightly insulted.... but turning them into croutons.... MIND BLOWING. Definitely trying that out next time.”

Michelle revealed: “They totally used to do this in my high school cafeteria. The croutons at the salad bar were the left over pizza!”

Chelsea suggested using different types of carb-based dishes to jazz up a meal, saying: “I’ve made grilled cheese croutons for tomato soup before! Also I work at a waffle restaurant and we dice up waffles, toss in garlic butter and roast into croutons. 12/10 highly recommend alternative croutons.”