If you love deep-fried meals then you are not alone. Who can resist hot, crispy glory with all its crunchiness on the outside yet soft and fluffy on the inside anytime you like? Good news is there is actually a cooking appliance that promotes healthier way of frying which is becoming so popular nowadays and that is an Air Fryer.
Thanks to those who started this cooking method way back the 5th century BC in the classical Greece when they discovered deep-frying using olive oil, because little did they know that what they started will become a culinary phenomenon worldwide until this very date!
It was until the 19th century when the cast iron was popularized, paving way to modern deep-frying in the United States.
As much as you love your deep-fried treats, be aware though that there are underlying health hazards attached to it. The oil mostly used either industrially or domestically is made of lard and animal fats which contains high amount of saturated fat and cholesterol which is the main cause of clogging of arteries resulting to heart diseases, like strokes, heart attacks, angina pectoris not to mention obesity, diabetes, colon cancers and other health problems. And yes, there might be healthier alternatives like using olive oil and sunflower oil in cooking, yet excessive use of it can still be detrimental to health in the long run.
With the aid of an Air Fryer, you can reduce fats and calories intake in your diet as it uses hot air to cook the food instead of the hot oil. With lesser or no oil at all, this promotes weight loss and a healthier lifestyle for you and your family.
If you are in doubt why Air Fryer is a great investment at home, the following will convince you to have one:
1. Healthy Cooking. Unlike the traditional pan frying or even deep-frying where you submerged the food in the boiling oil forming pores where water and vapor flows out while oil penetrates in the food, air-frying requires little or no fat at all, and instead uses hot air to come up with the same crispiness in the exterior yet soft in the inside which is way healthier compared to its counterpart.
With air-frying, you don’t have to reuse the cooking oil, thus preventing you from consuming possible carcinogenic compounds from the used oil which directly affects your liver. The presence of carcinogen from used oils also prevents your body from absorbing the vitamins and minerals present in the food causing nutritional depletion that is why air-frying is more beneficial than deep-frying in terms of health and well-being.
2. Cost-Effective and a Versatile Cooking Gadget. Air Fryer is an investment as it can bake, fry, grill and roast. It’s like having 3-4 separate cooking appliances and tools rolled into one. Cost-wise, you don’t have to have a microwave oven to bake, an indoor or outdoor grill, and a frying pan to roast or fry as air fryer does all these jobs. There’s no need to stock as much cooking oil because you can fry with little or no oil at all using an air fryer.
What’s more exciting is that most of the modern Air Fryers are designed to have food separators, so you can cook several meals all at the same time which saves not only electricity costs but your time and effort so you can be more productive and cover other household activities while cooking.
3. Easy to Use and Manage. Let’s face it, deep-frying or even the traditional pan frying is a messy affair. Imagine the greasy splatters and oil marks that it leaves to its surrounding after frying that you need to tidy up not to mention all the oily kitchen utensils that which need to be cleaned later on. Cleaning all the oils takes a lot of time and energy and the odor stays for a while in your kitchen especially when you deep-fry fish.
Air Fryer on the other hand leaves your kitchen neat after cooking. Cleaning the Air Fryer is not complicated too. It’s fryer basket, grill and pan are removable and can be washed in the dishwasher easily. It is also designed with non-stick materials so food will not leave oil on it’s surface, which means little maintenance if you are always-on-the-go.
4. It Has Controls and Is Programmable. There’s a great advantage of having an air fryer at home as it has timer settings and preset programs. You can choose to use the analog buttons or go digital with an easy touch screen icons where you can set the programs.
These features are very convenient and easy; you don’t need to be an expert to come up with sumptuous meals as it has preset programs to cook certain types of food.
Air fryer has a timer so you don’t have to stand the whole time watching your food being cooked. Unlike the deep-frying where you have to control the temperature of what you are cooking in order not to end up uncooked or overcooked, air fryer saves you from that as you can easily control the temperature depending on what you are cooking. Also, you don’t need to be exposed to the heat coming from the boiling oil. With air fryer, you can multi-task and just wait for the alert or the alarm to indicate that it’s done.
If you are meticulous, you surely can check the food without interfering with the timer. The pan can also be removed while still heating, it will just pause and if you return the pan, the heating resumes, which is so cool!
5. Air Fryer Is Durable and Safe To Use. Air fryer leaves you worry-free in terms of house fires caused by boil-over or fire aggravated by stream of water and oil since it needs little or no oil at all when cooking, plus the food is cooked with a lid.
It had its automatic shutdown feature so you don’t have to panic if you forget to shut it down. You can remove and return the pan and the heating process will just pause and resume without damaging the appliance.
Unlike deep-frying, air fryer saves you from scalding and burn injuries since there’s no oil splatter, that also makes it easier to clean and maintain. With an air fryer, you don’t have waste oil which can be hazardous to the environment when not dumped properly as it clogs the sewage pipes and sewage system.
An Air fryer is a recommended cooking appliance because of its wonderful benefits in terms of convenience and comfort while cooking. It makes cooking so easy, cleaning to be a hassle-free task, food to be nutritious, low fat or oil-free and healthy, and you are worry-free in terms of durability and safety.
It is a cost-effective kitchen gadget since it can be used to cook, grill, bake and roast which makes it a great investment! You save a lot since one appliance can cook with several methods, you can also save on electricity costs. You can do other chores as it allows you to program the temperature and preset the timer depending on the meal that you are cooking.
You don’t need to be a professional cook to come up with meals. You can just mix the ingredients and pop those in, set the time and it will cook for you. It alerts you when the food is done so you are assured that there will be no under cooked or overcooked meals.
If there’s something that you definitely need in your kitchen today, that’s an Air Fryer! Go, get one!
