Three Things I Learned When I Used My Air Fryer Make a Week’s Worth of Meals

I generally use my air fryer to cook freezer snacks or to do a quick job of meat And vegetablesBut I appreciate this counter convection oven the most when I need an escape from the usual sink full of bowls and pots to fry after dinner.

Last week, I needed this freedom more than ever, so for the first time in my air frying story, I tried to prepare all my meals in my instant vortex fryer. It was not always great, but I ate and learned.

Why I like the instant vortex air fryer

The instant vortex was my tool of choice for this challenge. She is a basket -style air fryer, and while I tested a lot of fries Outside, I reach it for most daily recipes. You may be wondering why I don’t prefer a style air fryer Cooking Air Fryer and Grille-Pain. I love them and I think they are perfect for cooking, but they require much more counter space than I have to offer in my apartment.

The instant vortex, on the other hand, is medium -sized, light enough to move in and out of its storage space, and it brown uniformly.

The best ingredients for meals with air fryer

Last week was hectic, so my meals were not always perfect examples of the image of a balanced diet. Despite being a culinary writer, many of my meals are more like non -coordinated snacks. The price of the week contained eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, peppers, a variety of marinated meats, sausages, dumplings, ravioli, cheese and sandwiches. Some of these articles have proven to be planned because I do them all the time, while others were surprising. One of them that I would never do again.

Here’s what I learned.

Meals with simple roasted ingredients are the best

The instant vortex is ideal for roasting vegetables. All of mushrooms has sweet potatoeshas chickpeas And pepper– I only had success to roast vegetables in this simple basket air fryer. This week, I threw three medium sweet potatoes at the same time. I had pricked them around the outside, mainly because it helps to point out when they are finished (sweet juices boil and caramelize when the potato is cooked), and I ended up eating one as a midday snack for three days of racing.

For dinner one evening, I made portobello mushrooms in roasted plush (fundamentally the mega version of these plush mushrooms that I love so much). I tried another version with mash potatoes like the stuffing. The verdict: absolutely generous and tasty, and a simple wash cleaning of the air fryer basket with soapy water.

The point to take away: Any meal that could be composed of two or three roasted items absolutely crushed in the instant vortex. The dinners were easy and without interruption all week. If you travel the All Air Fryer road, this is my first suggestion.

What if you eat eggs for breakfast, or something other than you normally cook in a frying pan? It was literally my very first challenge to defeat, because I cannot eat eggs in the morning. I know I can Take out the bottom grid and fry my eggs Directly in the basket, but I didn’t want to get the bottom of the fat basket and clean it. I also knew that I would put sausages in there and make a sandwich for breakfast.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Instead, I used my six -inch cake pots. A cake pan which is small enough to adapt in the basket provided me with a small robust surface, with the additional advantage of being metal: even if the convection ovens heat from the top, I knew that the metal would lead this heating through the bottom.

I buttered the pan, I fell in love with my egg in it and threw in a few brown sausages. I placed the pan in the basket, and as there was room on the sides, I put my bun there to do toast too. I checked the progress of the sandwich after a few minutes and removed the bun so as not to dry. The rest prepared in about five minutes and my breakfast was a flight success.

The point to take away: If you want to do something wrong in your air fryer without an additional mess, a small cake mold is your best friend.

The air fryer is not a large steam boat, but you can make it work

Unfortunately for me, I love soups and steamed items. The soup would clearly never work in the air fryer, so I didn’t try it, but I just couldn’t let go of steam. I had tried smoking dumplings at the fryer Once before, and I found myself disappointed. This time, with the new success of cake cooking, I tried a different approach.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

I added about a quarter of a thumb of water to the cake pan. Put a layer of carrots downwards and overcome them with frozen dumplings. Then I covered the pan firmly with aluminum foil. The idea was to capture the steam while the pan and the water heated. I used the carrots to keep the dumplings out of direct contact with water, like a steam tray, and I told myself that they could also cook, and I could have well -cooked carrots.

Well, the dumplings did steam. However, it took more time to do it in the air fryer than in a simple stove steam, and the carrots did not bake. I once again tried the aluminum paper cover method but without water, using frozen ravioli on small asparagus cuts and barley remains. It was much more successful, and I think that is due to the warmer starting temperature, as well as the fact that the items were less dense and that the additional humidity was not really necessary.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

The point to take away: If your pan broke and your microwave was broken and you had everything you had, it was an air fryer, then I suggest trying the covered with flower for steam, but not if the ingredients are frozen or dense. It will take too long, and you risk that some of the ingredients become pasty.

My most successful air fried dish

I roasted tons of chicken, marinated pork and steak. These were incredible, but I was very proud to make all the sandwich for breakfast in five minutes with barely cleaning. I also dropped Queso Blanco slabs into the air fryer and it climbed and perfectly golden – a huge victory.

My least successful air frying dish

By far, the steam dumplings and carrots were lower than any other method I used to cook these items. Your air fryer is simply not a very good steam boat.

So, should you cook each meal of the air fryer?

Although the air fryer is a versatile tool, I don’t think you would be happy to make each meal using alone. While you could Cook a full meal after a well -balanced meal in the instant vortex, you would miss a certain variety. Everything would be a crunchy or roasted version. No soups, gently sautéed foods, steamed ingredients and certainly no whitening can be made in the air fryer.

That said, the air fryer can help rationalize a good part of the meals, and you can reduce the time spent in front of the kitchen sink with simply cleaning this single basket. Just keep my three points to remember when you plan your recipes.