If you regularly scroll Instagram or TikTok, you’ve probably seen videos of air fryers at least once. This air fryer craze has recently taken the internet by storm. The idea of ‘frying’ food without having to drench it in oil seems appealing to many, as the result might be healthier than deep-fried food. And look, suddenly you’ve got yourself this trendy appliance.

But how does this thing work? Air fryers have a heating mechanism and a fan on their top section. They will work to rapidly rush hot air around the food. This circulation of heat cooks the food until it’s nice and crispy. Appliances like ovens work with the same principle—the fan in air fryers just makes the heat spread faster.

You can cook a lot of things quickly (and still get nice results) with air fryers. But if you don’t know where to start using your new air fryer, we’ve listed some easy and yummy recipes for you to try.

4-ingredients Nutella brownies

The deliciousness of Nutella is a huge temptation. Rather than cleaning out the whole jar by itself, try this easy Nutella brownies recipe. You just need 4 ingredients: 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup white sugar, 3 eggs, and 1 cup Nutella. You can also get cocoa powder to top the brownies off, but that’s optional.

To begin, prepare a 20 cm round cake pan and grease it lightly. Then put baking paper on its base. In a separate bowl, mix flour and white sugar. Make a hole in the centre to put in egg and Nutella, then stir until well combined. Transfer the mixture into the greased cake pan and smooth out the top.

After you’re done making the brownie batter, don’t forget to preheat the air fryer to 160°C. Then, bake the brownie for around 40 minutes. Check if it’s done by sticking a skewer—if nothing sticks to it, then you can remove it from the air fryer. Top the brownie off with cocoa powder if you like.

Roasted potatoes

Feeling hungry and want some quick carb intake? This yummy roasted potato recipe is perfect for you to make with your air fryer. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, along with some bacon or steak. Simply get some starchy potatoes and some spices like paprika, garlic granules, onion granules, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, and the classic salt and pepper.

Start by dicing the potatoes into cubes. You can put them into a bowl or directly into the air fryer basket. Now it’s seasoning time: sprinkle all the prepared spices on the potato cubes. Mix thoroughly until the potatoes are evenly coated with spices.

Before cooking, spray the air fryer basket with cooking oil. Then insert the basket into the air fryer and roast the potatoes for 10 minutes at 200°C. Take out the basket, flip the potatoes and insert the basket again. Continue roasting the potatoes for around 10 to 15 more minutes until they turn golden brown.

Vegetable “stir-fry”

Now onto the healthier side of air-fried delicacies. Vegetable dishes are good for our body, but they can be boring and bland for some people. Spice things up with this air fryer vegetable “stir-fry” that’s quick, easy to make, and full of good nutrients.

To make this, you need to prepare a few things. Pick vegetables of your liking—we use asparagus, brussels sprouts in the recipe. Get also extra firm tofu and mushrooms for complements. For the flavour, you will need some garlic, Italian seasoning, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, and pepper. You can add sesame seeds for garnish, too.

This dish is unbelievably simple to make. Combine all the ingredients into a bowl, then mix everything well. Then, transfer the mixed ingredients into air fryer basket and cook at 180°C for 7-8 minutes. Serve the stir-fry with a bowl of warm rice or pasta.

Frozen foods

Frozen foods are our saviour when we’re too busy to cook, or simply too lazy to do it. Take this easy-to-process food to an even easier level with your air fryer. All you must do is grab a bag of frozen food of your choice, load it into the basket, and air fry. Remember not to overload the basket, so cook in batches if you’re serving multiple people.

You can cook any kind of frozen foods you want, like hamburgers, fries, onion rings, fish cakes, and many others. Note that different types of frozen food might need a different number of minutes to cook. You can check out this air fryer cook times cheat sheet for easy guidance.

Those are some recipes that you can easily make with your air fryer. There are still lots of other air fryer recipes out there, so if these don’t suffice, feel free to explore. Happy cooking!

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