Finally! All of your questions answered about your air fryer. Whether you are new to cooking in your air fryer or you love it just as much as I do, Air Fryer 101 is a Tara’s Tuesday Tips best and a MUST READ! There is a reason my Air Fryer recipes are extremely popular on Pinterest. I have a lot of practice air frying!
Tara’s Tuesday Tips: Air Fryer 101
Why Do I Love My Air Fryer?
I am passionate about finding new and creative ways to eat plant-based awesome foods without them being disgusting. I share my recipes and my tips in hopes of helping others find easier ways to make healthy choices. For this reason, my air fryer is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets. Easy, healthy food ready in minutes.
Call me old-fashioned but I will take the gift of a kitchen gadget any holiday, any day of the year. Forget the flowers, bring on the air fryers!
Why Use An Air Fryer?
- Crispy just-like-fried (sans all the oil + calories) veggies or potatoes right in your own home.
- Temperature controlled aka very little chance for recipe failure.
- Similar look, feel, texture and taste as your favorite fried foods.
- You can also cook any of your favorite frozen foods that you might put in your oven or microwave faster with. more crispy exterior.
- Safe + clean (no oil to discard, no fear of an oil fire, no splattering oil on your counters!)
- Cooks quickly! Saves you time in the kitchen 👏
- The easiest kitchen gadget you will ever use. No confusing parts, pieces, or buttons. Simply toss your food in + turn the dial. Done.
What Is An Air Fryer?
An air fryer works on hot air circulation similar to a convection oven but on a smaller scale. Instead of using hot frying oil, it uses circulating hot air to cook the food. Food cooked in an air fryer will have a crispy look and can be cooked at temperatures up to 400 degrees. The finished product is food without excess unhealthy oils.
Typically, this fabulous little appliance will have a pan and a basket. There are newer, bigger versions with different configurations but all still pretty basic. All of the ingredients that you wish to air fry should be put into the basket, which fits into the pan.
The Health Benefits of Cooking In An Air Fryer
When comparing deep frying to air frying, you will produce a food with significantly less calories. With deep frying, you submerge your food in oil which is absorbed into your food. Using your air fryer is much healthier (and less calories). You can simply give your food a light spray or drizzle of oil prior to tossing in the basket or coat with a tablespoon of oil. However, you don’t NEED to use any oil if you choose not to. The oil gives your air fried food a slight crisp to the outside similar to a deep fried food but is not a necessity for the cooking process.
Above all, in my opinion, the most important health benefit you will reap from owning (and using) an air fryer is that you will eat more veggies! Suddenly the daunting task of figuring out a healthy snack or side dish just got exponentially easier. When you just can’t overcome the time and effort it takes to roast a tray of fresh veggies or chop the ingredients for a salad, enter the air fryer.
With this tool in your repertoire, you can cut open a bag of fresh or frozen, organic, pre-washed veggies of your choice, spray with a little avocado or olive oil spray, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and there you have it. A super healthy, hot, crispy snack ready in 10 minutes! That’s my kind of snack. People ALWAYS ask me, Tara, what do you eat? Air fried veggies!!!!! No joke, I use my air fryer every day.
Common Air Fryer Mistakes:
- Number one tip in Air Fryer 101. Shake the basket! Anyone that I have spoken to that does not have a love for their air fryer is making one of these mistakes. Not shaking the basket during cooking is at the top of the list. Don’t walk away the entire cook time. Walk away for a few minutes but come back and shake the basket! It is so easy, come on.
- You are overcrowding your food. Give your food some space! Through trial and error of your specific appliance you will need to learn what likes lots of space. Remember, putting too much food in the basket could yield a soggy mess instead of crispy wonderfulness.
- Putting wet food in your air fryer will increase sogginess. So, wash your veggies ahead of time or pat them dry real well before cooking.
- You aren’t cleaning your air fryer in between uses and your food is getting a confusing taste. Gross, stop doing that. Clean it every time.
- Just like an oven, an air fryer needs to preheat. Placing your food in at the optimum temperature is the ideal cooking situation for the perfect roast + crispiness. Take a few minutes for the preheat phase. You are already saving time cooking in an air fryer versus your oven or deep fryer.
Check out my full article on air frying mistakes here: Most Common Air Fryer Mistakes
Cooking Without Oil
As you know, we avoid oil as much as possible here at MVF. This is totally doable when cooking with an air fryer versus a deep fryer or even your regular oven. The high heat circulation allows your food to crisp up even with just a slight oil spray or none at all. The choice is yours. Both ways equally as delicious.
Air Fryer 101: Recipes
Check out all of my air fryer recipes right here: My Vegetarian Family Air Fryer Recipes
⭐️Did you enjoy Air Fryer 101? Do you have more Air Fryer questions? Leave a comment below! We love comments!
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Tara this is one of the best email on Plant base things that I get I have spent 2 hrs just reading and coping receipts . Thank you for doing this, I started in Dec of 2020 going plant based. I have not eaten anything of meat or milk for over 2yrs so though I would go all the way. When I started I didnt do Oil dropped 10 lbs, then next came salt & flour, dropped another 10 lbs, then sugar I have dropped 41 lbs and still going. Thank you for everything. and you are beautiful .
So happy to hear this!