Do you actually use your Slow/Pressure Cooker or Air Fryer?

[DrPhilYourGuts]

Yes, I am easily led, but I keep seeing how fabulously energy saving these kitchen gadgets are. Many seem to have rave reviews, but are they actually worth having?

I've seen you can get combination 'multi' cookers, which are all three but not sure if these are jack of all trades and masters of none.

If you have one, do you recommend? DH seems to think they can only make 'slop', but some have bake and roast functions so surely not only wet food?

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MNHQ

I use my slow cooker in winter for casseroles, curries, chillies and goulash as you can cook them gently without burning or anything sticking to the base. They make a good goulash.

I love my ninja and use it a LOT. It slow cooks, sautés, air frys, I can't remember what all, but it has replaced my rice cooker, slow cooker and pressure cooker, as well as letting me air fry.

I do roast dinners, soups, stock bases for sauces, meatballs, casseroles, just lots. Tonight I am putting spring rolls in with some salmon I am marinating, they will be done in 12 minutes and I am stir-frying some veg and noodles in the wok. Yesterday I threw in my chicken carcass (from Sunday roast done in the Ninja) and made a stock in 20 mins, then strained that and put chicken and veg in for another 20 mins and had chicken broth. Tomorrow we are having ribs which I will slow cook. It is so handy!

We have an air fryer but don't use it for beige, frozen food but as above like a mini oven.

Things such salmon in a glaze(it get the skin incredibly crispy), crispy kale, cauliflower, roast chickpeas, corn on the cobs, miso/tahini aubergine, butternut squash, tofu. And you tend to get away with far less oil than if you were roasting in the oven

@loopylindi Thanks, a really helpful explanation. Lots of you seem to be converted Ninjas, maybe I'm underestimating the air fryers or are these ninjas which slow and pressure cook?

Whenever I type ninja, I just imagine Leonardo and Raphael crashing into my kitchen to cook for me!

I have a 9 in 1 ninja foodie and I absolutely love it. We mostly use it for veg and rice in the pressure cooker and anything that usually goes in the oven in the air fryer (mostly chips, nuggets, sausages, burgers etc). I haven't used the slow cooker bit yet but I am doing a chilli this week so will see how that goes. I definitely recommend it. The only thing is, sometimes if I'm doing a dinner that lots of stuff needs to go in the air fryer, I end up using the oven too otherwise it wouldn't all fit in or it wouldn't all be ready at the same time.

Slow cook on low.

Yes, absolutely. Air fryer pretty much every day, pressure cooker probably a couple of times a week and slow cooker similar but in winter only.

The pressure cooker gets used for batch cooking - I did 10 portions of Bolognese and 6 of rendang last week, and it's brilliant for cooking a piece of gammon in about half an hour, a potful of dhal or curry, chilli, soup with no faffing about soaking beans etc.

I do casseroles in the slow cooker, beef in red wine or pork with apple and chilli jelly, that kind of thing.

Airfryer for chips, heating quiches or pies, garlic bread, crisping up baked spuds after cooking in the microwave.

I wouldn't like to be without any of them.

I have both and use them regularly. Pressure cooking takes a bit of getting used to but it's a game changer - soup in 15 minutes, stews in half an hour. There are some great books out there. It doesn't let liquid evaporate so you need to bear that in mind. We do all sorts with it - risottos, pasta, curry etc.
Air fryer is instead of an oven - makes things brown and crispy. Also good for roasted veg, reheating things, and apparently cakes though I've not tried as mine is on the small side.
Oven rarely on these days.

I have a slow cooker which I hate - I just can't get it right. Nothing tastes as nice as something done on the hob or even in the oven.

I did have an air fryer, but tbh it was too small for a family of 5, and even the biggest ones aren't going to be hugely useful for multiple items needing to be oven cooked, like a roast dinner. We don't often have the oven on for only one thing.

I like the idea of a pressure cooker. I enjoy lots of stews and soups especially during winter.

@MrsDThomas, would you share your grannie's lobscouse recipe?

Both my air fryer and slow cooker are currently gathering dust. I'm sure the slow cooker will come out over winter.

If you like your gadget, can you recommend it please? There seem to be about 10,000 instantpots, ninjas, let alone all the other brands.

I'd also like to know if you can get a whole chicken or leg of lamb in?

@ChiefWiggumsBoy The article I linked might explain your slow cooker flavour issues, and the problems you might have with a pressure cooker vs oven cooked food.

Don't have an air fryer but use the slow cooker a lot in winter, if you use it properly it doesn't all turn to mush!

I've stashed away from the air fryer as to get an actual meal out of it I'd need a huge one and just don't have the space.

We are vegetarian - I hear great things about them for cooking meat, but obviously that doesn't apply in our house.

Is it worth it for veggie cooking?

Air fryer baked potatoes are the best. I cook them about 6/7 minutes in the microwave, then rub them with olive oil and air-fry them until nice and crispy. They always come out nice and fluffy inside.

The only thing I regret with getting an air-fryer is that mine is too small, and there are only three of us. I use it mainly for reheating and cooking chips or potato wedges, but sometimes make onion bhajis/veg pakora, bacon, garlic bread, etc.

Since I bought my air fryer I haven't used my oven , that's how great it is .

I have a air fryer and I use it a lot. I used to shallow fry stuff before stir frying in the wok. Now I use the air fryer to get the chicken pieces and tofu crispy. I also roast nuts, reheat pizzas and cook frozen chips.

We use our pressure cooker a lot (got it recently but we’ve each had them in the past so it’s not a new thing to us) as it does make a big difference for the sorts of things we like to eat. The other day we had pork cheeks cooked in 40 minutes instead of up to 3 hours. We’ve had braised beef brisket in the same time instead of up to 4 hours. We can cook joints from frozen. We can do beans/legumes on the same day instead of having to remember to soak them overnight (just a quick soak beforehand). It’s one you use on the hob.

We used to have a slow cooker each (lived separately at the time) but neither of us found them useful and both were given away.

Don’t have a multi-oven or air fryer yet but I’m probably going to get a Ninja foodi at some point. I’d like a smaller oven for when I’m only doing small amounts (just the two of us in the household).

I have an Instant Pot. It's really good. However, I would like to upgrade it to a Ninja multi-cooker (I think the latest one is a 15 in 1), so I had an integrated air fryer, as I don't have space for a free standing one.

Whatever you do, don't by the very cheapest air fryer. We did, it was terrible, and now DH won't consider a better one, especially with our space constraints.

We have a mini (3 litre) instant pot www.argos.co.uk/product/9485853 it does four adults for beans, peas, monks vegetables and dal , you can fry onions in it.www.paintthekitchenred.com/ethiopian-lentils-instant-pot-misir-wot. The instant pot is vegetarian.

We also have a dirt cheap slow cooker that lives in the utility room cupboard but is only allowed to work in the garage. To fit a whole leg of lamb in it tends to require the use of the kitchen junior hacksaw. Currently doing bbq pork.

You really do have to think about what you and your family eat. My family have a few quirks, most do.
I fry fish fingers and chips come from the chippy.

Food from both gadgets sometimes goes via the hob to be 'enlivened' (reduced, crisped, fresh stuff added, etc)

I have a ninja 14 in 1. I use the pressure cooker function and steaming more than the air fryer option which is one of the reasons I went for that one (most of our food is cooked on the hob and we never eat beige food!). My other half is veggie so I pressure cook bean based stuff, although I do also use it to cook gammon/chicken to slice up and use on sandwiches/throw in my portion of pasta etc.

I rarely do full meals on it, but use it alongside what I'm doing - e.g roasting some veg or toasting nuts to throw in something, or to pressure cook a side like potatoes for mash or rice without needing to watch it while I concentrate on the main recipe.

It also got me into baking bread - there's no reason I couldn't have tried before, but the booklet had a recipe in it and once I'd realised it wasn't as hard as I thought I started doing it more regularly.

@CirreltheSquirrel we never eat beige foods either which is one reason why I haven’t bought one yet - I’m not convinced it’d really useful for the types of foods we cook/eat. Although lately I’ve seen a lot more people say they do roast chicken (or other) in and a wider range of from-scratch dishes. If you imagine cooking for two adults only and already having a pressure cooker, do you think it’s still got enough to recommend it? As I said before, I’d love to have a smaller oven for heating up lunch rolls/roasting an aubergine, for example or some other veg/making a casserole or gratin dish for two/etc. I also don’t have a toaster (hate the crumbs on the counter) and currently use the grill in our standard oven so I think the grill function would be handy. I just find it so hard to pull the trigger as it were, especially because DH really isn’t convinced.

Sorry I just noticed you already mentioned roasting veg! Baking bread in it sounds great as I bake a lot. Just want to make sure a) I’ll use it enough to make it worth it, and b) I’m not spending more than it’s actually worth in time/fuel savings /functionality.

We are only two adults, and it is useful but we didn't have any of the individual functions (pressure cooker/air fryer/slow cooker) before I got it so it. If I already had a pressure cooker it might not have been as worth it. It is good for just heating something up quickly but it's also quite expensive if that's the main appeal.