Most useful kitchen appliance

[Nearlythere09]

I have the tiniest kitchen with surface space of about a metre - I kid you not.

On that space is a microwave which I use now and then to defrost meat if I forget to take it out the night before (on a defrost setting).

I am thinking of ditching it in favour of a more useful appliance to help me prepare meals easily and save time.

Which appliance should I go for- air fryer, slow cooker, keep the microwave or something else?

I couldn't manage without my air fryer or microwave. If you only use your microwave for defrosting I would go with the air fryer.

I don't have a microwave. I have a ninja foodi 14 in 1 - pressure cooker (I prefer this to slow cooker), airfryer, sautes, lots of functions. I barely use my oven. I've had it 3 years and I LOVE it.

It's not a microwave though so it can't defrost rapidly. I meal plan and am generally pretty organised about that so it's not something I've needed.

I sympathise with the lack of space. In our first flat I doubt we even had a metre of surface space, it was ridiculous!

What about a combi microwave? It cooks, grills and microwaves. We have one and we barely use the oven now

Combi ovens are meant to be cheaper to run than air fryers, although the marketing around air fryers has managed to drown out that noise.

But if I was limited for space, and the microwave wasn't essential, I would go for a multicooker such as the ninja.

Batch lady has tips on her social media around defrosting quickly if you need to. Not as quick as a microwave admittedly but a good alternative. Equally, we just keep something like frozen ready made tortellini in the freezer for "those days".

I have a Ninja Foodi 14 in 1 too and use it for the pressure cooker, sauté, air fry and steam full meals in - made shepherds pie in it last night, can roast a whole chicken and do all sorts of other meals in it too. Only use the microwave for baked beans and soup now!!!

Thermomix. But very expensive.

I’d get a compact combination oven/microwave. This sort of thing. I haven’t got an airfryer because a combo microwave does the same thing and I’ve had one for decades. The other thing I use a lot is my

I've got a microwave with grill although I've yet to use the grill function and an air fryer. I use both daily. I don't have a particularly large kitchen so they do take up some room.

If I'd known I was going to get an air fryer and just how useful it is, I would never have splashed out on a Neff oven when the kitchen was replaced, I've used it around 20 times since 2022, would probably have been better to have bought a cheaper one.

My oven was on on Christmas day and that's it. I caviat that with there only being two of us. Ninja 14:1 and we also have an electric wok. Microwave for cooking rice, vegetables soup fish but that could be an electric steamer I guess.

That's very helpful. I do like the sound of the Ninja Foodie as it has a pressure cooker function and air fryer. I grew up terrified that my mum's pressure cooker would explode but I am so time poor that I can see how useful one would be.

It's just two of us here too, so it would be great to get something that will save putting the oven on.

Another vote for the Ninja 15-in-1 here. It's just brilliant and gets used every day for all kinds of things from air frying to roasting to slow cook stew, or (recent fave) proving bread dough at a set temp and time. We relied on it totally while getting our kitchen redone, and by the end of that (painful) project we realised we didn't need most of the new appliances we'd splashed out for.

Modern pressure cookers don’t really have that concern. I have had an instant pot for years and it’s so easy and safe to use. Instant pots are pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker etc combos and I think there is also a model that has an air fryer.

I don't have a microwave but for defrosting small amounts of meat - chops, sausages etc - i find immersing (wrapped) in a bowl of cold water for an hour or so soon defrosts them. I use a small mixing bowl. Changing the water every so often helps.