ROAD TEST: We Air Fried everything in our fridge. Here’s exactly what happened.

So when you’re two twenty-something-year-old girls living together in the city there are many reasons why you shouldn’t be cooking. 

1. UberEats. There are so many options available that it would be embarrassing to not know where to get the best vegan, gluten-free dumplings under $6.

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2. Time. We’re busy, hard-working women. Do you really expect us to come home at 6pm and do more work?!

3. We’re not entirely sure how to use our oven. 

By the end of the week we have accumulated approximately this many UberEats bags (yes, there is a bin underneath).

Image: Supplied.

Mid-iso, fearing for our health, Emily’s dad gifted us an Air Fryer. This was obviously the highlight of 2020, and we decided to Air Fry everything in our fridge in a bid to reduce our UberEats consumption (or economy stimulation, whatever you want to call it). 

Here’s how it went.

Fried cauliflower and falafel.

Image: Supplied.

Okay, this was really good. We chopped up the cauliflower, put it in the Air fryer on 200 degrees for around 10 minutes, and then added the falafels in for another five.

The cauliflower got those iconic crispy edges and the falafel achieved the perfect balance of crunchy exterior/soft interior. We smeared some hummus on the plate like the MasterChefs we are (budget edition). We would like you to ignore the fact that everything on the plate is brown with no greenery in sight. That’s not important.

We give it a solid and unwavering 8/10.

Late night potato gems.

Image: Supplied.

Potato makes up a large portion of our diet. Is this okay? Unclear, but we’re very happy.

Potato gems are nostalgic and absolutely delicious, but as we previously mentioned... we don’t really know how to use our oven but even if we did, we’re not waiting for it to pre-heat, and then waiting for them to cook? Too much, we’re exhausted at the thought. 

There was little doubt that these would be a success, pop them in the Air Fryer on 200 for 10 minutes and you’re done. Perfect for a snack after a big night, and saves you the delivery fee.



Hangover breakfast.

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If you’re anything like me (Emily) then you spend most of your Saturday morning battling a hangover. I’m not a heavy drinker, but the universe clearly hates me and decides to punish me after one glass of red wine. On the positive side, for the last three to four years I have perfected the hangover breakfast.

One fried egg, one piece of toast, one hash brown, one piece of protein of your choice and (please don’t @ me) a tall glass of Coca Cola. You’re welcome. 

So of course, I was going to attempt my hangover breakfast in the Air Fryer. And guess what? It worked. Was it amazing? No. Will I make it again? Absolutely.

Why would I want to deal with the aggressiveness of stove top cooking when I can just tuck everything away neatly in my Air Fryer, out of sight, out of mind? The egg was… questionable, but if you close your eyes and pretend that it doesn’t look the way it looks, it’s just below average. Everything else tasted perfect. 

For a hangover this meal is an 11/10. For a person who makes better choices this meal is a solid 4/10 (I don’t make the rules).

Gluten-free vegan cheesecake.

Image: Supplied.

Why? Why not. It was in the fridge, so we put it in the Air Fryer and it was delightful. The base got super crispy, the topping baked into a brownie-style situation, and it got this top crust. 

We thought this would be a total failure/melting/ruining the Air Fryer scenario, but it turned out to be a 9.5/10 (it would have been a 10/10 if we had ice cream).

Crunchy chickpeas.

Image: Supplied.

I (Lucy) can snack. Like I can really snack. Most days consist of small snacks rather than big meals, and I mostly crave the salty, savoury variety. I didn’t have any chips at home, which is unlike me, so I decided to make an alternative: crunchy chickpeas. 

Basically, you just need to put a drained can of chickpeas, along with whatever seasoning/spices you like (I did a Mexican spice blend and sea salt) in the Air Fryer, crank it up and forget about it. Come back in 15 minutes for a snack that is absolutely not chips but it’ll fill the void. 5/10.

This has been a journey. We learned that you can pretty much Air Fry anything, that we should incorporate more green vegetables into our diets, and that from now on, our oven will only be used for storage as we will never be using it again.

Feature image: Supplied.