Today I've used my air fryer to ...

[Katypp]

Following on from the thread about an air fryer changing your life, I was disproportionally annoyed about the number of rather snobbish posters who are clinging on to the idea that we all just use our air fryers for chips and nuggets.
I have no idea why this annoyed me so much - and I have no idea why I feel the need to defend my use of my AF, as a keen cook.
So, it got me thinking about how I use mine, and I thought it would be interesting to show all those who think they are a little bit too common for them what they can be used for.
This week, I have used mine for:

Tuesday: Jacket potatoes for lunch, sausages and black pudding for all-day breakfast
Wednesday: Cooking tuna pasta bake made on the hob
Thursday: Roast pumpkin for Thai pumpkin soup, cook salmon and meatballs for dinner
Today: Apple and blackcurrent baked oats for breakfast.

Anyone want to join in?

I also made some chips for the first time

I cut up my potatoes and soaked them in water for a few hours way longer than they advise but seemed fine

Then after rinsing I soaked them in boiling water for 15 mins. Not exactly sure why but I read it somewhere

Dried with a tea towel and added tbsp oil, garlic granules and Cajun type spices cooked for 30 mins and shuffled half way

DD and I loved them. Fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside.

Next time I make chips I'm not going to bother with any rinsing or soaking to see if there's any difference

Sausages and kale crisps… balance in all things

I make potato wedges all the time and blast them in the microwave first for 5 or so mins before airfrying. Then toss in a bit of olive oil and add salt and whatever herbs spices etc.

you could probably do this with chips too.

@BurntBroccoli yes good idea and much easier I'll try that next time thanks

I do quick roast potatoes for fussy DD quite often - just par boil potatoes as normal (although I do smaller for the air fryer) then into the air fryer with some oil and salt for about 15 minutes. Works really well, You can do them with tinned potatoes to which I think are fine but little Miss Precious has issuse with that.

Thanks Lilac.

I’ve got a small Ninja Vortex one… and use these to heat up stuff…
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/ikea-365-food-container-with-lid-square-glass-plastic-s39269120/

Ikea certainly used to do ovenproof silicone lids which fit if you take the insert out of the air fryer.

Check your dimensions obvs!

Can really recommend baked sweet potatoes.

@LilacLilyBird Do you put your toastie on a little wire rack? I do mine on one and the bottom comes out fine and it doesn’t seem to need turning. 🙂

@Ljufr I just put it on the crisper plate thing it comes with

I do have a metal rack somewhere though that came with my crockpot that I could use if I find it. I which I'm now realising I should have used on my crock pot all this time too duh

I use my air fryer almost daily. They are perfect for single people as no putting on the main oven for just a small meal.
Of all the things I do I love the way they cook sausages. 10 minutes and they are perfectly brown all over. No having to constantly turn them in a pan. Just bung them in and forget about them for 10 minutes.

Do you all just bung everything in on the air fryer setting? Or use the bake, roast, grill settings etc?
I'm an air fryer newbie, did some lovely tomatoes for breakfast today, have done salmon, but otherwise it's just been used for chips which take forever in my gas oven. Grateful for this thread for inspiration

Lidl will be selling these soon for anyone that's interested

My friend last night was telling me to use bake for certain things like my frozen croissants

So I did that this morning and it came out a bit better than yesterday

Not sure if it's all the same just has different set temperatures and times which I change anyway

She had a cheap air fryer but has since replaced it with a Ninja because the non stick came off the other one too soon

She also said the ninja is so much easier to clean than the other one

I think the different settings may mean different fan speeds as well as the different default times and temperatures. I use bake quite a bit. Also use max crisp for anything that needs the higher temperature (in mine the other settings go up to 210°C but max crisp is 240°C).

I have tomatoes, garlic, red onion and some chilli in the air fryer right now roasting. it's only been in for about 6 minutes and the smell is already heavenly.... I've put it in for 15 and will give it a shake at that point and then leave it in for a bit longer - probably another 5 minutes.

Mine has roast not bake so croissants will carry on as they are although I did 'roast' them earlier

Does anyone have the wire racks to create a second 'shelf' inside the drawers? I probably should have bought a couple from the Ninja site when I bought the machine but wasn't sure if I'd need them, but now think they would be useful! Would love to hear if they are worth it?

I made Nigella's potato and pepper bake in the Airfryer tonight, and roasted chicken breasts in the other drawer.

In the last week or so.....
roasted bar boiled potatoes
reheated home made cauliflower cheese that had been in the freezer in foil tins
crisped up a jacket potato that I started in the microwave
roasted veg - potatoes red onion, courgette, peppers and tomatoes with garlic and herbs with chicken sausages in the other drawer to go with it
reheated home made cottage pie
roasted spicy cauliflower
salmon fillets
The only thing i've used my oven for in the last 4 weeks is to bake a cake and a pizza!

Croissant
Pizza (had to trim ends of an oval pizza for it to fit)

Just put it on to cook pork steaks.

Tonight I'm making crispy tofu to go in a stirfry. The air fryer is so good for tofu.

Yesterday DD make cinnamon bagel bites with some melted chocolate as a snack and they were delicious.

Road tested an actual meal (rather than chips and chicken goujons!) in my new ninja tonight and it was brilliant.

Made marinated salmon chunks (only took 8 minutes) with roasted broccoli which took around the same amount of time. I did put the broccoli on for 15 at first as that's what Google said but it cooked so fast. Usually it would be 30-40 mins in the oven for broccoli and 20 for salmon. Had it over rice with teriyaki sauce and my very fussy dd loved it!

The sync function is so useful so you don't even have to even think about timings once it's all set up. I am very impressed.