Is there any point in getting an Air Fryer?

[BarbaraUsher]

The world and his wife seem to have an air fryer. I’d love to save some money on a massive electricity bill, but I don’t know whether it would pay for itself. All I hear is about people cooking their chickens in it.
What do vegans and vegetarians cook in their air fryers?

I use mine all the time. It does delicious sweet potato wedges, chargrilled sweet peppers, courgettes, onions etc. Oven chips are amazing in it.
Also good for cooking things like vegan sausages and burgers.

Can you bake lasagna in one? Thinking about the question ’What do vegans and vegetarians cook in an oven?’ and I come up with lasagna, baked potatoes, cake, biscuits, dishes with a sauce and topping eg veggie bakes, are they all able to be done in an air fryer then?

I was a snob and always turned my nose up at them. I hate having things on the kitchen side. But when we were having our kitchen done we got one out of necessity as we didn’t have a proper oven for weeks. Well! It’s been a game changer. I use it all the time. I use it to warm our croissants in the morning, I use it for jacket pots, chips, bacon, sausages, toasties. For roast dinners I always do the veg in it. I find it so much more convenient than heating up our large range cooker. I had soup for lunch today and cut up some bread and made delicious croutons in 4 mins.

Id have my air fryer for the roast broccoli alone. On the highest setting, with a good amount of water in the bottom. The brocolli cooks quite quickly a mixture of roast and steam, comes out charred with a very slight bite. Delicious.

crispy tofu, roast veg, slow roast tomatoes, toasties, chips/frozen beige food, cookies, stuffed veg. I use it every day as do my teens. I will use it instead or in addition to the oven. It crisps things better so sometimes i use it because its better tool for the job ( eg fries are way better in the air fryer)

I’m always put off as it seems such a faff to clean.

I just put it in the dishwasher.

I find it brilliant for pizza as it goes so hot. Max temp for three minutes. I cut the pizza in half with scissors 😄

I have the ninja health grill and it’s fab for steaks, like a bbq, but also halloumi or feta and roasted vegetables. Nice bit of roasted feta to top a veggie tagine. Crispy roast potatoes. I do boiled eggs in mine too. Pitta bread “pizzas” with toppings. Veggie sausages, tofu, aubergines sliced and roasted with cumin and chilli, baby courgettes cut in half and grilled for a couple of minutes. Mushrooms are great on it too, lose the water. And cherry tomatoes to go with breakfast.

I also like the Linda McCartney pies once in a while, and learned the hack of turning them upside down half way through cooking: no soggy bottom

I don’t have a dishwasher. This is also the reason I hate using a cheese grater.

Duplicate post. I don’t know why!

Duplicate post.

Duplicate post. First time that’s happened and I did 4! Sigh.

I don't get them, maybe if you live alone to save turning on the oven. I do have a great combination microwave which is useful for beige food in occasions, so maybe if I didn't have that.

However I have never had a slow cooker or George Forman grill either and everyone had/has them.

I do a lot of tray bake type food in mine. Mix of vegetables & butterbeans (add 1/2 way through cooking time) with some spice mix is easy and delicious. We also chuck cheese on top, but that's not vegan.

I use mine a lot but only have a small cheap one ( literally £40 3 years ago from Robert dyas) so i don’t do chickens in it and there are only 2 of us - I heat up pies, roast sweet potato chunks, rosti, tempura prawns, fishcakes, sausages - boiled eggs ( make sure to turn right down to 140 or they explode!) the only think I actually use my oven for these days are the aforementioned chickens and things in a large dish like cottage pie and the odd pizza. It’s the best£40 I’ve ever spent- have asked Santa for a slightly better one for Xmas. If I can mention o don’t actually live on beige food, but all the other things I make are wok or stove stop - one thing it did help with though was I stopped most takeaways when pushed for time as it was so fast just to bang something in the airfryer and put on top of salad , no heating oven up etc - and it works on the kind of food that isn’t a ready meal and doesn’t work well in a microwave, coated food, pies, sausages , scampi etc

Im not a baker myself, but my mother swears by hers for scones

How exactly do you make boiled eggs in an air fryer please?

Just got mine a few weeks ago and I love it. Mine is quite small and I’m wishing I’d got a bigger one! I’ve done steaks, homemade chicken nuggets, wedges, sausages, so mostly ‘dry’ food. I know you can do pasta bakes and curries but I’m not sure about using it for ‘wet’ foods.

That's not true if you have a gas oven as gas is far cheaper per kwh.

It could be the case for small loads with a short cooking tine.

stick em in as they are- turn down to 130 (really important) and then 11 minutes - only thing about them is they are mega hot when they come out and the shells can be a bit of a pain to peel off - I do them for work packed lunch

Ours is in use most days.

I particularly like to crips up cubes of tofu. Is great for a breakfast - whilst I am making a tofu scramble I use the airfryer to 'grill' halved tomatoes and mushrooms (no oil required )

Also pretty good for roasting baby new potatoes, jackets potatoes. My DS cooks for himself often and he might have a ready made pie, or v sausages - much more efficient in the air fryer.

This airfryer has two decent sized drawers - I can cook for all of us easily. Instead of washing the trays out every time, I got a pair of silicone inserts - which I just put in the dishwasher when I think they look like they need it.

The main oven is barely used nowadays.

I use ours less since we cut out meat but I still wouldn't be without it. I would say a modern multi/pressure cooker would be more of a game changer for a vegan because it lets you cook pulses from dried without soaking. Some even have an air fryer mode which isn't as good as a dedicated air fryer but saves on counter space.

Everything. You will still use your hobs but I cook a lot of vegan meals, as well as non-vegan and cannot remember the last time I used an oven. Definitely pays for itself but get a large one with two, separate sections.

Tofu and paneer are both brilliant in the air fryer and it means you don’t have to stand over a spitting pan.

Roast vege

Potatoes cut into little cubes and shoved in with a bit of oil plus whatever herbs or spices you fancy

Veggie burgers are better in the air fryer than the oven, because they don’t dry out

I’ve done stuffed peppers in there, which work well