Help! How do I use my Nutri U AirFryer

For people worried about what you can or can't cook in an Air Fryer, look on You Tube, and search for 'Butler's Empire'.

The couple are very watchable and show how you can cook almost anything from Steaks to Yorkshire puddings. All from scratch.
They use the Ninja AF400 , dual drawer, and a Cosori.
I have found their hints and tips useful, even though I now have a Tower Vortex, with a front opening door.

I would have a problem with a air fryer that was also a slow cooker because I often use both at once.

Apologies Abitbarmy I didn't read the link properly the first time I read it. (How on earth did you find it?) That's enormously helpful.
Now all I need to do is persuade DH to print it off for me. I don't have a printer but he has one in his office.

Took delivery of my Air Fryer a couple of days ago. Used it for the first time, cooked sausages and baked potatoes at the same time. They were lovely, and much quicker that using the main oven.

Will try a small chicken at the weekend. Really it is just a mini oven, so most things cooked in the main oven you can cook in the Air Fryer.

I use Pinterest for recipes. They can be anything from 3 ingredients to a dozen or so. I bought a little pot with a base which fits neatly inside my air fryer, keeping it cleaner and also able to cook "wet" foods with gravy.

I live on my own, I do not like the food being kept warm so I try to work out that everything is cooked at once. I am no chef so that could be a couple of sausages with corn on the cob and French fries in the air fryer with eg mushrooms, onions and other vegetables cooked on the hob.

Daughter has an air fryer, uses it often for things like potato wedges and roasted veg, fits her diet plan. Easy, fast, and economical to use, she says. She looks at video on the internet for uses (I asked).

Mine has a slow cooker function too.

I would not suggest that those using airfryers are not cooking, and I do not think anyone else has, but if you google anything to do with cooking times for airfryers, it always consists of a list of lumps of food and how long it takes to cook them.

I think casseroles, stews, risottos, benefit from long slow cooking. I put a venison stew in my slow cooker this morning and then went out for most of the morning. It slowly cooked for 4 hours and was dwkicious, As I said it is not a question of either or, I hve both, but I use the slow cooker more,

I agree Blondiescot. The first thing I made in mine was a sausage casserole.

I fully agree Blondiescot.
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Nannagarra

Thank you Pittcity for the very useful table.
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Yes, thank you Pittcity 😊

I cook everything from scratch and love mine, although I do have a Ninja which has several other functions apart from air frying. I can easily cook a roast dinner in mine without constantly having to check or turn things. I rarely fried food beforehand - as a few people have pointed out, don't think of these machines as actually 'frying' food. I love making everything from stews and casseroles and risotto (in a fraction of the time it would take using conventional cooking methods) to soups, jams, bread, cakes etc. It's a myth to suggest that people who use air fryers aren't cooking from scratch or that they're only making things like burgers and chips.

I think you need to consider what food you eat before deciding whether you need an airfryer.

Airfryers are ideal if you are what I call a dry eater, by that I mean you often cook chicken pieces, hamburgers, sausages, baked potatoes, lumps of food. If, like me, you prefer wet food; casseroles, stews etc, then you are better off with a slow cooker.

I have got an airfryer, quite small, £20 in the sales and I really do not use it very much, for pommes parmentier, chips. I tried cooking a small chicken and roast potatoes in it, but found it fiddly and needing constant attention. In an oven I just put chicken and spuds in it and go off and do something else for an hour. It took nearly as long in the air fryer and I was constantly, turning it over to make sure it browned properly.

I am not going to say whether one is better or worse than the other. They are two entirely different appliances and, personally, I use my slow cooker far more frequently than my air fryer.

I meant something like poppadoms. The photo isn't mine!!

ExDancer

Pittcity
By 'light' do you mean the foods sold as slimming aids? Like 'light butter', 'light cornflakes' etc?

No, foods that don't weigh much so may get blown around by the air fryer eg slice of thin bread possibly

Pittcity
By 'light' do you mean the foods sold as slimming aids? Like 'light butter', 'light cornflakes' etc?

I use mine when it would be a waste to put on the oven, such as for a couple of sausage rolls or croissants.
Sausages or bacon for sandwiches is another favourite here and it crisps up bread a treat.

If you're cooking a full dinner you won't save anything over bunging it all in the oven.

Don't use the light oil sprays or olive oil as they damage the non stick coating and be careful with light foods that may get blown by the fan into the heating element and burn.

That’s helpful thank you. I cook from scratch usually and use my slow cooker 3 times a week.

I think it helps when you get past the word "fryer". It will better than oven fry but I find it best as as a substitute for a grill or an oven. I expect others have other comparisons too.

As far as I know the idea is that they hardly use ANY oil.
I've done a lot of research and they seem to recommend spraying oil onto things like roast potatoes.
The name Air fryer is a misnomer. They cook by hot air.
You seem to only be able to cook one thing at a time - so keeping food warm is difficult without using some other appliance.
Like Jacjacsy I cook from scratch.
On sunday I googled 'How to cook Yorkshires in an AirFryer' and it told me to 'preheat the Afryer to 180 degrees and take out the required number of puddings from the freezer'!!!
I pride myself on my real Yorkies!!
I need a good cookery book - any recommendations?

I did roasted cauliflower in mine last night, I will not be cooking it any other way again.

Broke the cauli into florets, and sprayed with oil, salt, pepper, chile flakes and lemon juice. 180 degrees 15 mins.

Excuse my ignorance, are air fryers all about fried food? Do you have to use oil all the time in them?
I’ve not got one but keep seeing them advertised.

I bought one, read up on it for meal ideas, looked at it for a week and sent it back. I cook from scratch the majority of the time and just couldn’t justify the space v the amount of use it would get. I’m using the microwave/grill and slow cookers a lot more instead.

Today my DH pointed out an article called proof you CAN cook your entire Christmas dinner in an air fryer.
Quite helpful for a novice like me.
But she didn't say how she kept the first items warm while she was cooking the rest!
Did she use her oven on low?
Doesn't that rather defeat the object?

Thank you Pittcity for the very useful table.
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