nancy820•24d agoProlific Poster

Noticed a shift in air fryer cookbooks at Barnes & Noble last weekend

I was browsing at the Barnes & Noble near my house last Saturday, looking for something new to try. The cooking section had a whole shelf dedicated to air fryer cookbooks, way more than I remember seeing a year ago. I flipped through about six of them, and I was surprised how many pushed frozen foods like bagged fries and chicken nuggets. There was one book though, "Air Fryer Vegetables," that had fresh recipes with specific cook times for things like Brussels sprouts and asparagus. It made me wonder, do you all prefer quick frozen meals in the air fryer or do you take the time to prep fresh ingredients? I am leaning toward fresh myself but curious what others do.

2 comments

2 Comments

kim_martin24d ago

I spent a solid month last winter testing frozen stuff in my air fryer versus fresh, and honestly I landed on a mix. For those frozen french fries, yeah they come out crispy fast and that's hard to beat when I'm tired after work. But the veggie book you saw - I actually checked that one out from the library and the Brussels sprouts recipe in there changed my mind about frozen. They come out way better fresh with a tiny bit of oil and some salt, and the cook time is like 12 minutes, not much longer than a frozen bag. So I guess I lean fresh for veggies, frozen for the junk food cravings.

grant82624d agoTop Commenter

Are we really at a point where we need a whole book just for air fryer veggies? Seems like the internet already has a thousand free recipes for that stuff. I get that people like the convenience but buying a cookbook for frozen apps feels like overthinking it. And maybe I'm wrong but isn't an air fryer just a tiny convection oven? Why are we acting like this is some new form of cooking nobody knows how to handle.