The sales of air fryers have soared in recent times due to the current cost of living crisis.
Just recently sales of the kitchen gadget reportedly tripled in recent times for Tesco - one of many shops that are seeing people add the items to their baskets more frequently.
Energy bills are just one of the many essentials that are seeing an increase, and as a result, people are looking at ways to cut down costs.
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However whilst sales have soared, especially with households looking for new ways to make the same delicious meals without spending hundreds more on energy bills, people are taking to the internet in a bid to see what they can and cannot cook.
However whilst they're a great kitchen tool for several foods and dishes, some items should just be left outside of the fryer.
According to Birmingham Live, there are six items that they tried and tested that do not work and should be avoided.
Want to know what items to avoid? Here's what they had to say.
Toast
It sort of works, if you’re short of a toaster, but it mainly just dries the bread out and blows crumbs everywhere. If you’ve got a toaster, there’s no need to do it in the air fryer as the toaster is on for so little time, it’s hardly a big energy consumer.
I’ve seen several sites claim you cannot cook a cheese toastie in an air fryer, and there I draw the line. Though it takes much longer, around 10 minutes, an air fryer will cook the crispiest cheese toastie you’ve ever eaten.
Broccoli
I discovered you couldn’t cook broccoli while cooking my air fryer roast dinner. I had popped them in with some carrots, but while the carrots came out perfectly caramelised, the broccoli completely dried up and the florets turned to dust.
Veg can easily be cooked in your air fryer, but you either need something with a bit of weight and bite, or frozen food which retains moisture.
Rice
This one’s a bit obvious. Air frying relies on dry heating, as the machine cannot get hot enough to boil water, so any sort of grain that relies on boiling water just doesn’t work.
Pasta
Pasta has the same problem as rice, it relies on boiling water and the concept of air fryer is dry. You can, however, add pasta into the air fryer once it has been fully cooked through by boiling.
Battered fish/wet batter
If you’re using pre-bought battered fish, the air fryer is perfect for warming it up. However if you’re battering the fish yourself, the wet batter will just slide off the fish before it crispens up.
Instead, you can use panko breadcrumbs which have a bit more stick thanks to their large surface area. Just make sure to give the fish a thorough egg wash so it's nice and sticky.
Popcorn
You might think popcorn is a surefire win in an air fryer, but it’s a complete no go. It actually became a bit of a craze on Tiktok, but what wasn’t so publicised is there is a (small) fire risk.
The problem is with kernels getting stuck in the heating system at the top when they pop, so it's best to steer clear of this one.
I’ve searched high and low and these are the six I’ve come up with. Other than more leafy greens and grains (too many to name) I’d struggle to find much else you cannot cook in an air fryer. Let us know in the comments if you've discovered any more.
You can bake, reheat and defrost in them. If you’re looking to buy one, I highly recommend my beloved Ninja Air Fryer AF100UK, which I use pretty much daily.
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