The Air Fryer. What a concept. We were resistant to it at first, but Black Friday/holiday deals persuaded us to get one—specifically, a PowerXL Power AirFryer model. I’m not sure what we were expecting, but we were blown away and have had absolutely no regrets with it. We are now a part of the air frying cult.
As members of the cult of air frying, we’ve been trying weird things with it, and some of it worked, some of it did not. But some that worked…really worked. It’s been surprising what tasted amazing and what failed when air fried, but we’ve kept on using it and playing with it.
What we air fried (highlights/low lights):
Cauliflower
Cauliflower was probably the best thing we tried and continue to use with the Air Fryer. It gets crispy and doesn’t have the same ‘bleck’ flavor as roasted Cauliflower tends to have. It’s easily dip-able into mustard (my favorite combo was with the Dillman Farm’s BBQ mustard). It’s simply awesome. If you’re only going to air fry this…well, it’s still worth it.
Tofu
The point of air frying the tofu, extra firm cubes, was to get it crispy to drop into our own ramen. It worked moderately well—not crunchy, but good.
Brussel Sprouts
Crispy brussel sprouts are a favorite of ours at restaurants. We thought: can we make our own? YES! Yes we can! They are crispy and, again, are great with sauce or mustard.
Asparagus
Cooked well, but nothing to write home about. I don’t think there was much of a difference with air frying it versus roasting it.
Bread
It functions as a weird toaster. Not much else to say here.
Edamame
Terrible, absolutely terrible. Pretty much inedible.
The Actual Device
Okay, so enough about the food…how well does it work and how easy is it to use? It’s moderately simple to get the hang of. You put food in the basket, push it in, and tell it how long and it’ll do it all for you. The electronic display is a bit finicky, so there’s a slight learning curve there. I’d rather have nobs, but I’m a luddite with kitchen tools in that sense.
Apologies for lack of good pictures: the surface was highly reflective so I couldn’t get a picture of the entire device without getting myself and most of the house in it!
Conclusion
GET AN AIR FRYER, stop holding out. It’s a good tool to play with and make vegetables more interesting in addition to generally being incredibly versatile. It should join your kitchen tool arsenal and transform your meals! 150% recommend it.