Air fryers – what’s all the fuss? Air fryers can give you healthier chips and roast potatoes that don't mean you have to add another notch to your belts. Since they use a lot less or no oil, that means you can stick to that diet while enjoying healthier versions of the fried food you know you love!
So you can commit to a healthier you without compromising on taste and texture.
What is an air fryer?
An air fryer is basically a mini convection oven. Like a convection oven, it uses a fan to circulate heat around food so it cooks evenly. Unlike a standard convection oven, it does this really quickly because it’s so much smaller. And that speed is what gets your food crispy in all the right places.
So, what can you do with an air fryer?
1. Get into healthier eating
Deep frying, while delicious, is obviously not great for you. Submerging something in hot oil seriously brings up the fat count – doing nothing for your heart or your waistline. So why not use something that gets the same crunch and flavour of a deep fryer but with a fraction of the fat?
Air fryers only need a little oil – usually just a tablespoon. That’s because the hot air inside the air fryer does all the cooking. The oil’s just there to stop your food from burning.
To give you an idea of the difference that makes – chips made in a deep fryer have almost quadruple the fat of those made in an air fryer. Yikes!
2. Make frozen food way better
No doubt about it, frozen food is a life saver when you need a quick dinner. But even oven cooking takes time. So, what to do if you want to speed things up?
An air fryer gets it done much faster than an oven. For example, a frozen chicken breast might normally take between 30–45 minutes. In an air fryer, that times cuts down to 20 minutes. Plus, with breaded items like onion rings, you’ll get a much crispier result.
3. Cut down your clean-up time
Frying is messy, especially at high heats with oil jumping all over the place. Then you have to dispose of the waste and scrub the pan to get rid of the fat.
In an air fryer:
a) You’ve got less oil, which means less washing up liquid.
b) Most air fryer baskets are dishwasher safe, so you can quickly pop them in there.
4. Brush up on your baking
Despite the name, air fryers are not just for frying. Like we said, they’re actually mini convection ovens. That means you can bake rolls, pastry and even cakes in an air fryer.
Of course, you don’t want to be putting any batter straight in there. Liquids are going to gunk up your air fryer. A pain to clean and not very good for the machine itself.
So, remember to line your air fryer with baking parchment if you’re making rolls. Or pour your cake batter into a cake tin before putting it in the air fryer.
5. Get creative in the kitchen
Baking and frying are just the start. There are so many things you can make – big and small. Hard or soft boiled eggs. Mussels. Mac and cheese. Corn on the cob. The list is pretty exhaustive.
Where to start? How about some easy air fryer recipes? They’re vegan too - so that’s another New Year’s resolution sorted.
