GROUP TEST AIR FRYERS
Stop frying your heart out
Air fryers offer a healthier way to cook your favourite foods, while saving time and energy. Seven of the best go basket to basket…
DON’T COOK SNACK IN ANGER: HOW TO CHOOSE
● Overfill equals overkill. Pay attention to makers’ guidelines on capacity: air fryers need a certain amount of room for the hot air to circulate.
● Whether or not you need to preheat is a hotly contested issue. If you’re pushed for time, don’t be afraid to skip it – unless you’re cooking meat.
● Got leftovers? Don’t ignore your air fryer’s potential to reheat small portions quickly while retaining the original texture and flavour.
● Give the basket a shake or two during cooking. This can really help you achieve crisp, evenly browned food.
● Take a minute to wipe down the inside after use, as well as washing the basket. These are usually easy to clean, but they take up a lot of space in the dishwasher or on the drying rack – so consider buying silicone liners, or even (if you’re dead lazy) disposable paper ones.
Ninja Double Stack XL
What’s the story?
Why have two drawers side by side when you can have them on top of each other for a 30% saving in worktop space? The Double Stack XL is ideal for those of us with cramped kitchens; just make sure you check the height clearance of your cupboards first.
The drawers also have a trick: they can ‘double’ up thanks to a clever rack in each – so you can cook two foods on different levels in the same drawer. That makes up to four separate cooking zones in all – ideal for families with different culinary desires or needs.
Is it any good?
What you get with Ninja is high quality in terms of both capability and materials, although you certainly pay for it – it’s double the price of a lot of very capable rivals. And it’s not exactly good-looking either.
A lot of the time you’ll find yourself using one drawer, or two drawers without the double-stack racks – I found I didn’t need the double-stack capability on a regular basis. But it’s there for when you do, such as having people over for dinner, and it excels at the basic job of cooking a lot of food when you’re short on time. Everything is very evenly done, providing you shake it up a bit during cooking. It’s also nicely quiet, even when you’ve got two drawers running at full pelt.
The disadvantage is that there’s no massive space to cook, for example, a large bird, or any way to combine the drawers – if that’s what you’re after you’re probably better off with something like the Sage Smart Oven on p66, or Ninja’s own Foodi FlexDrawer (£270).