IF you believe cutting energy is hot air, think again.
There’s a nifty appliance that can keep bills down: An air fryer.
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The gadget takes far less time to cook meals than an oven, doesn’t need pre-heating and uses much less energy.
An average oven will burn 3,000 watts per hour, and electric hob 2,000Wph.
I’m a novice air fryer user and decided to go cold turkey on my oven and hob for a week with the Tower 4 Litre Air Fryer — available from Iceland for £49.99 — which uses 1,600Wph, around half that of the oven.
I cooked all my meals in the air fryer (plus some sides in the microwave), including a Sunday roast and a fry-up, and saved two thirds on my electricity bill.
Here’s how I did it.
Monday: Chicken wings, chips, corn on the cob
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My first day using the air fryer and what amazed me most was how easy it is to use.
I just chucked in some frozen chicken wings and chips, turned the top dial to 200C, the bottom dial to 12mins and was able to leave it, with it turning off itself once the timer ran out.
I had to give the drawer a shake after 12mins for the chips, but four minutes later they were ready.
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Then another two minutes later, the chicken wings were ready too.
Oven cooking time and cost: 30mins, 51p Air fryer cooking time and cost: 18mins, 16p Saving: 35p
Tuesday: Sausages, mash and peas
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The air fryer is quickly becoming my new favourite way of cooking sausages.
I was using frozen ones from Iceland, so they would have taken 28 minutes to cook in the oven.
But they took just 15 minutes in the air fryer, and fresh sausages would’ve been even quicker.
You use no oil either, so it’s much healthier than frying them, and they tasted great.
I did try to cook the mash in the air fryer but it didn’t work very well, so I had to use the microwave instead for that and the peas.
Oven cooking time and cost: 28mins, 48p Air fryer cooking time and cost: 15mins, 14p Saving: 34p
Wednesday: Salmon, potatoes and veg
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This may be the easiest meal ever.
I just popped the frozen roast potatoes into the air fryer for 15mins and halfway through added in the salmon, which I’d sprinkled with herbs.
I then opened the drawer and, voila, it was done.
What was great about this was that the herbs on the salmon seasoned the potatoes too.
Oven cooking time and cost: 23mins, 39p
Air fryer cooking time and cost: 15mins, 14p
Saving: 25p
Thursday: Beef noodles
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Today was a slight disaster, but I’ve never used an air fryer before — and you can learn from my mistakes.
While the beef cooked very easily in the air fryer, cooking noodles and veg in there doesn’t really work.
It just made everything slightly crispy, and I only saved 2p in comparison to cooking it normally on my electric hob.
Frying time and cost: 10mins, 11p Air fryer cooking time and cost: 10mins, 9p Saving: 2p
Friday: Nando’s Chicken, rice, peas
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I’m a big fan of the Nando’s Bag & Bake sets you can buy in the supermarket to make your own Nando’s chicken at home.
You just pour the included seasoning on the poultry, put it in the bag and pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.
And I was very excited when I found out on TikTok that you can do this in the air fryer — and it takes five minutes less to cook.
I tried it and it was delicious.
Definitely my favourite meal of the week.
Oven cooking time and cost: 30mins, 51pAir fryer cooking time and cost: 25mins, 23p Saving: 28p
Saturday: Full English
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There’s nothing better than a Full English on a weekend, apart from being made one rather than cooking it yourself.
But the air fryer means you can whip up an entire fry-up in 15 minutes, rather than around 25 minutes (and that’s only if you’ve got everything being cooked at the same time).
While a normal fry-up would include putting hash browns into the oven while frying the sausages, eggs and bacon simultaneously, making sure nothing burns, the air fryer means you can put everything in at the same time — including the egg in a ramekin — and it’s done.
Easy!
Oven cooking time and cost (hash browns): 22mins, 37p Frying cooking time and cost (for everything else): 12mins, 14p Total normal cost: 51p Air fryer cooking time and cost: 15mins, 14p Saving: 37p
Sunday: Roast
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Roasts are one of the longest meals to cook in the oven, but the air fryer slashes the time in half, and will cost you far less.
I was able to put a whole turkey joint into the air fryer for 30 minutes, popping in the roast potatoes halfway through, and that was that.
The flavours of the turkey joint wrapped in bacon mixed with the potatoes, were so tasty.
But the tastiest thing about this meal was how little time it took and how much less money it cost than if it was cooked in an oven.
Oven cooking time and cost: 55mins, 94p Air fryer cooking time and cost: 30mins, 27p Saving: 67
