The Ninja Speedi is a step up from Ninja's renowned range of traditional air fryers. It's a rapid cooker, designed to cook whole meals through steam and convection cooking. So, naturally, it can do a bit more than even the best air fryers.
Pasta, rice and grains can be combined with sauce and veg in the cooking pot, while proteins are air fried on the crisper tray above. And thanks to the combination cooking, this can be done in as little as 10-20 minutes.
Aside from rapid cooking full meals, the multicooker can steam, air fry, bake, roast, slow cook, dehydrate, and more. It's a versatile machine to have in your kitchen, and can be used for much more than quick, convenient meals.
But how well does it perform? We put it to the test and tried a variety of different foods and functions to see exactly what it can do.
Ninja Speedi: Key specs
Ninja Speedi: Price & availability
I reviewed the Ninja Speedi ON400UK, which is the model available in the UK. It retails at full price at £249.99 at Ninja UK but is often on offer for around £149.99. It's also available at Amazon, Currys, Argos, and other retailers, all at around £149.
The US-available Ninja Speedi SF301 has 12 cooking functions instead of the UK model's 10, and you can find it at Ninja or Amazon for $199.99.
There was a US equivalent to the UK model, the Ninja Speedi SF300, but it has limited availability since the SF301 was released as an upgrade. The SF300 can be found at Walmart for $119 or available as renewed at Amazon for $119.95.
Air fryers of this size (5.7L / 6-qt) are usually more affordable than the Ninja Speedi, but not many of them have the multifunctionality of steam cooking and rapid full meal cooking, so you're paying a little more for the features.
Score: 3.5/5
Ninja Speedi: Setup
As with most air fryers, very little setup is required aside from unboxing and finding its new spot on the kitchen counter.
The Ninja Speedi was delivered in a large brown cardboard box with the proper Ninja Speedi-designed box inside. Everything seemed environmentally friendly, with paper and cardboard fillings to package the cooker and even a non-plastic sleeve for the booklet and manual.
The booklet includes a list of Ninja-suggested recipes to try out, like cod fillets with spiced quinoa, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, and chocolate fudge cake. There are also very handy cooking charts at the back for air frying, steaming, dehydrating, and steam air frying. All sorts of meat, vegetables, and other foods are listed in amounts, temperatures, and timings, with instructions on how to prep and how much water or oil to use.
It didn't take long at all to figure out how to use the Speedi. The booklet and manual cover everything anyway, but playing around with the controls for a minute or two was enough to familiarise me with how it works.
Ninja Speedi: Design
Unlike many air fryers, the Ninja Speedi doesn't utilize a drawer. The lid opens upwards to the left, revealing a cooking pot and a crisper tray inside. It's a minor detail, but it's worth mentioning that the lid opening in this way means you will need some space next to the cooker to be able to use it comfortably. I found that, as the only available space in my kitchen is next to a wall, it can be a little tight next to the microwave (not pictured below).
The design does, however, allow it to be used for much more than air frying. The cooking pot connects to a heat source at the bottom, which is how the Speedi is able to steam, but it also means the pot essentially doubles up as a frying pan. The crisper tray has adjustable legs so that you can position it at either the bottom of the pot or about 2/3 the way up to separate fried ingredients from liquid, grains, veg or pasta.
The Ninja Speedi has ten cooking functions: Speedi Meals, Steam Air Fry, Steam Bake, Steam, Grill, Air Fry, Bake/Roast, Dehydrate, Sear/Sauté, and Slow Cook.
The US-available Ninja Speedi SF301 has 12 cooking functions, with Proof, Air Broil and Sous Vide, but it doesn't have the option to Grill like the UK model.
There are two cooking modes, Rapid Cooker or Air Fry/Hob, and you use the SmartSwitch on the lid to easily switch between them. The rest of the controls are just as simple, with three sets of arrows to select cooking function, temperature, and time—and a power button and start/stop button.
Speedi Meals is the USP here. You can cook whole meals with grains, pasta, liquids, and/or vegetables in the pot, with protein on the raised tray to separate what needs to be crisped. It uses a combination of steam and convection cooking to properly cook all elements, and you can see the big convection fan in the lid when you open it.
I find the Speedi does have a nice look to it. It looks more advanced than traditional air fryers and is sleeker and more compact than many multicookers. When cooking, steam is released out of the ventilation fan in quite a satisfying way. And what's great is that the exterior is never hot to touch, regardless of how long it's been cooking for.
Verdict: 4.5/5
Ninja Speedi: Performance
I've been using the Ninja Speedi for just over a week so far, and have been trying as many variations as possible to get a feel for its capabilities.
Despite the mixed results below, the multi-cook feature will undoubtedly be a saving grace for any home cooks who prioritize convenience. Being able to throw everything together, season it, and leave it to cook by itself requires very minimal effort, and if you're not overly fussy about the quality of the flavors, it could even help you become more excited about cooking.
I'm confident that recipes can be fine-tuned so that all elements are cooked evenly, and with the endless variation on offer here, there will easily be plenty of combinations to perfect.
Where the Ninja Speedi excels, in my view, is in its ability to steam and air fry. This is a feature found across a few of Ninja's cookers, like the Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker, but the Speedi packs the feature into a relatively compact machine. Being able to steam veg and gyozas while simultaneously cooking noodles on the hob is a game changer and leaves the food a lot juicier (and more nutritious) than when air or pan-fried.
The Speedi itself is a well-thought out machine. It's ridiculously easy to use, and has enough space to fit all sorts of varieties of food (you can even roast a whole chicken). I've found that no matter how hot or how long I've been cooking, it's never too hot to open the lid and let the steam out, which is great for when you need to check the food.
It can, however, be difficult to remove the crisper tray while it's still hot. Ninja recommends using silicone tongs to pull it out, but this can sometimes be a challenge when the tray is quite crowded, as the handle can be hard to reach and food can fall off the sides. This is only a problem when there's also something in the cooking pot underneath, as you may need to reach that before layering the protein on top.
All things considered, this is a very capable multicooker, and something that I'm excited to incorporate into my cooking more. As somebody who's passionate about the process, I'm personally not a fan of the Speedi Meals as quality is sacrificed for convenience, but I can easily see how this could revolutionize cooking for a lot of people.
Score: 4/5
Ninja Speedi: Taste test
The first meal I made was a Ninja recipe, Carmy's Famous Spaghetti (I love pasta as much as I love The Bear, so it felt right to go for this tv show-inspired recipe). I'm very much into my cooking so this was a great chance to test how effectively the Speedi can handle multiple components, as I was sceptical of something that's doing all things at once—and the results sadly confirmed my suspicion.
As the water, tomatoes, veg, seasoning, and pasta are all cooked in the same pot, you're effectively cooking dried pasta in the sauce. This still cooks the pasta, sure, but you can really notice the difference in consistency compared to cooking in boiling water. It felt more doughy and chewy, and a lot of the flavor of the sauce was lost during the cooking as, usually, the sauce is cooked on a low simmer rather than at the same temperature you're boiling pasta.
The meatballs were also overcooked, highlighting the tricky part of cooking multiple ingredients on one time/temp setting. The meal still tasted nice (thank you parmesan), but was noticeably a downgrade to what could be achieved on the hob.
This isn't exclusive to pasta, either, as rice and noodles are typically cooked separately from the veg, as cooking them all together can result in sacrifices in taste and consistency.
The ability to steam and air fry, meanwhile, garnered much better results - it's a fantastic way to cook meat. I steam air fried chicken thighs, and Ninja's claims of meat that's 'juicier and crispier' were not wrong. The thighs were golden crispy on the outside and not even remotely dried on the inside. All of the flavor had been retained too, perhaps even more so than when cooked on the pan.
And when it comes to straight-up air frying, it's as good as we've come to expect from Ninja. Cooking rashers of bacon at 200°C / 392°F for 8-9 minutes leaves them perfectly crispy with no oil needed at all.
Ninja Speedi: User reviews
The Ninja Speedi air fryer receives overwhelmingly positive reviews from customers on Amazon, who appreciate its ease of use, performance, ease of cleaning, quality, and value. Customers are happy with the appearance and versatility of the air fryer, although opinions are mixed on the size.
Users report being able to cook entire meals in the air fryer in a short amount of time, and many have found the Ninja Speedi to be a game-changer in their cooking routine.
Should you buy the Ninja Speedi?
Buy it if...
Don’t buy it if…
How does the Ninja Speedi compare?
With the cooking features on offer here, the Ninja Speedi sits somewhere between traditional air fryers and multicookers. Within Ninja's range, the Ninja Foodi 14-in-1 Smart XL ($349.99) is currently the most capable multicooker in terms of functions and capacity. There's also the newer Ninja Combi ($239.99) that has many of the Speedi's features and doubles up as a toaster oven.
The Instant Pot Duo Crisp is another strong option, available for $199.99. For a similar price to the Speedi, you could enjoy 13 cooking functions like pressure cooking and broiling, on top of the air frying and steaming that the Speedi can handle.
A more affordable option could be the GoWISE USA 7-Quart Steam Air Fryer, available for $141 at Amazon, but I'd personally spend the extra money on a more trusted multicooker brand like Ninja or Instant Pot.
How I tested the Ninja Speedi
I used the Ninja Speedi multiple times a day for over a week. I tested a variety of different foods, both individually and in different combinations, to see what the Speedi can handle. I also tried a variation of Ninja recipes and my own combinations to test both how well it can cook at its best, and how easy it is to cook personalised meals.
See more about how we test.
- First reviewed: 8 March 2024
