to think that air-fryers are just a passing fad?

[EeesandWhizz]

I know that they are everywhere do everything right now, but I'm sure that they'll soon join the steamers, breadmakers and George Foreman grills living in the back of the kitchen cupboard. The slow-cookers can stay on the worktop.

I bought a second hand Ninja Foodie, and to be honest I don't really get it. Do many people that cook from scratch really use them instead of the oven and hob? Or is it more like Pampered Chef that produced a lot of things for people that are not confident cooks that they didn't really need?

I am going to try cooking a 40 minute meringue in it later today though, so that might make me change my mind - I usually leave mine overnight in the oven for maximum crispy gooeyness, but an almost instant pavlova sounds fab!

I bought mine as an emergency after my oven broke (stove part still working). Now I don't see the need to replace the entire oven.

Mine is here to stay, in fact I upgraded a few months ago. I use it for lots and rarely use the oven now, it’s faster and cheaper

I only use our oven now once a week or so for pizza.

The Ninja is used every day and is here to stay.

I rarely use the oven except to bake cakes and biscuits, so I don't see the appeal really. I cook pretty much everything on the hob or in the pressure cooker.

Those of you who use them, other than oven chips or baked potatoes, what are you cooking in them?

@anotheropinion I cook traditional homemade food in mine. There's only two of us, and it fits a small lasagne/cottage pie/shepherd's pie/fish pie/pasta bake/baked salmon in nicely. Can also bake cakes in it.

I am dithering whether to buy one so I watched that television recent review program. A friend won’t quit carrying on about her Ninja and how I need one. I do a lot of small meals but I can’t see that it isn’t a fad.

I have a microwave/fan oven combo and it is smallish so the heat is probably the same ish as an air fryer. But watching the television review program I can see there is an actual cooking difference from an oven due to the small space. But I am not sure I can be arsed to reconfigure cooking times on everything right now. I tend not to buy kitchen gadgets so am waiting it out to see how long it holds up.

I make enchiladas, chicken or lamb shashliky, roasted veg (and prawns), meatballs, crispy potatos for side dish (by themselves or like batata hara), various veg sides, crispy chickpea, pre roast veg for soups and so on.

But yes, we are 2ppl household. For 4 wojld need the bigger one

I’ve had one a few years and have just bought a bigger one for home and will take the smaller one to our caravan (where the oven/grill seems to have the cooking power of a hairdryer!).

It does some things really well (cooking bacon) and other things more efficiently (small amounts, part baked rolls, etc).

Use mine daily (at least) perhaps it’s the big fuck off oven that will prove to be a passing phase.

There again, I have an espresso machine, bread maker and electric veg steamer all of which I use very often so perhaps I am not representative.

We have no plans to buy one, we have a perfectly good oven. I hate the idea of it sitting there unused, and I also don't want to lose the worktop space for something that does what my oven does perfectly well.

However I think air fryers are here to stay, like microwaves and slow cookers. Maybe built in versions will become available, or newer oven models will start to be made as air fryer combis. Their future will need to involve the space where the oven goes, as they are big items that do a similar job.

I do a weekly Sunday roast in mine. Alongside everything else. Rarely use the oven now.

It's way better than the oven for everything smaller than a pizza or roast dinner. And actually I can do stuff like chicken legs and roast potatoes in it. Maybe a small joint of meat would even fit. Or I could just do the meat in the slow cooker.

We can definitely live without frozen pizza and we rarely eat roast dinners. If I was putting in a brand new kitchen, I'd be tempted to skip the oven. Why pay £400 for something that costs so much to run and is difficult to clean when I can buy a Dual Ninja for £180, it costs much less to run and the drawers go in the dishwasher.

Taking up counter space is a nuisance, but I think I actually use it more often than the kettle or toaster.

Can you use then for the posher ready meal things? I live alone and one or twice a week I'll use Tesco finest things like this. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/267266846/?icid=ghsandappghs_pdp_share

If so, how do you adjust the timing?

I haven’t used my oven for a year! We cook from scratch basically every day too. I just bought some small bun tins so I can make mini mince pies without turning the oven on - cooked in 12 minutes with no pre-heating, so really energy-efficient. We make loaf cakes often in it too.

I cook all sorts in it. Chicken pieces, sausages, roast potatoes, jacket potatoes, roasted veg, fish pie, shepherd’s pie. We rarely eat anything breaded or from the freezer. It’s amazing for things like par-baked baguettes and petits pains, and cheese toasties are great. Definitely not a fad. I feel like my oven was a fad that I’m so over!

Use mine pretty much everyday and just the other week got a new George foreman grill as well.

Well, in a past life I was an award-winning cook, but now disability means I can’t stand for long enough to fry things I am an absolute convert to our Actifry. It does both the stirring stuff while air frying thing as well as the mini fan oven option and I wouldn’t be without it now.

It’s way more energy efficient and a lot easier to clean than my fan oven, too. I wouldn’t have bought one that didn’t do the stirring, just because of my personal requirements, but now that I have one I’ve found I use it for more than I’d anticipated.

Also very happy that I can now have things like kara age and sweet and sour without the deep frying 😋

Stuff like that takes about 1/2 to 3/4 of the stated oven time in mine.

I’ve had my Ninja for over two years and use it three or four times a week, sometimes just heating something ie the croissant I had for breakfast, other times cooking from scratch, I’m planning to cook sausages, bacon and a jacket potato for tea. I will partially cook to potato in the microwave first so it will be finished off with the sausages.

I’ve heard that Ninja are bringing out a new double air fryer which is stacked one drawer above the other so does not take up more worktop space - from a friend who works for Ninja. I intend to buy that model so I don’t need to juggle quite as much when cooking a full meal of meat and veg.

I do live on my own though, I’m not sure I would be able to use it as much if I still had my family at home.

But they can't make chips!

I bought one specially to make healthier chips, but it couldn't make them at all.

It was really annoying. I sent it back to Amazon in the end.

And I bought a new deep fat fryer with the proceeds.

We did start out just with breaded frozen items but then got more adventurous and were pleased with the results.

I did chips in mine. You just can't overfill it otherwise the circulation needed isn't there

I should add that I have a large kitchen with lots of worktops so there is plenty of space. I also have my food mixer and food processor out on the worktop as I find I use them more than if I had to haul them out of a cupboard.

No,why would it? It’s a mini oven, we use it when there is 1 or 2 of us, it’s so handy, especially if you love roasted veg as much as I do.

We rarely eat any breaded foods. We use it for cooking most things, we cook a lot from scratch. Just quicker and easier then the oven. We are a family of 5 and it easily makes enough food for us.

I have not tried home made chips, it makes good wedges though. I just do oven chips in it if I want chips. My tip for oven chips is to look for the ones that are thick cut or "steakhouse cut" - they seem to use different oil on these so they don't have that "oven chip smell" which I really dislike. The thick cut/steakhouse type ones seem similar to what you get at pubs etc, some kind of industry chip.