I cooked a ‘healthy’ English breakfast in my air fryer to see if it would taste the same without the guilt

I tried to cook breakfast in my air fryer in a bid to make a healthier fry up and the results were impressive. I cooked bacon, sausages, beans, hash browns and scrambled eggs from Morrisons in my Ninja Air Fryer AF100 .

Air fryers are designed to cook healthier meals in a flash without the need for oil, instead using rapid hot air circulation to make food crisp – and using around 75 per cent less fat than regular cooking methods.

I wanted to truly put it to the test, so I thought: ‘What is the one meal no-one could possibly put a healthy spin on? The one meal so deeply entrenched in grease and fat there is no way to eat it without feeling a small twinge of guilt?’

READ MORE:How to cook a ‘healthy’ English breakfast in an air fryer – step by step instructions

It came to me immediately. An English breakfast.

There is nothing quite like a greasy plate of fried food. It is great on a weekend morning, on a hangover and even as an all-day meal.

But there is absolutely nothing healthy about it. Until now.

The method

There are lots of air fryer recipes online for English breakfasts, but none with all the timings for the exact combination of ingredients I was using. I believe fry-ups are very personal, and my preference is bacon, sausages, beans, hash browns and eggs.

Here is how long each of those components take, cooking at 180 degrees celsius.

15 minute Air Fryer English Breakfast ingredients

Hash browns – 15 minutes

Bacon – ten minutes

Sausages – 12 minutes

Beans – six minutes

Eggs – five minutes

Method

Set yourself a target time, and add each ingredient into the frying basket the above amount of time before. The only part needing additional care are the eggs, which need stirring every couple of minutes to avoid them forming a skin.

Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to make the breakfast in an air fryer.

The execution

As long as you spend time planning your method and timings beforehand, the Air Fryer English Breakfast is pretty easy and worth it for the results. Everything was crispy, and I honestly believe everything was as crispy as it would have been had I cooked it traditionally.

The only difference was nothing was covered in that layer of grease you come to expect from an English breakfast. I enjoyed my usual treat foods without the guilt.

The Air Fryer

The Ninja Air Fryer AF100 is the smallest and cheapest air fryer Ninja stocks, but that is not to sell it short. It is easy to use, with every control self-explanatory without needing to read the instruction manual.

Plus it is quick, reasonably quiet for a kitchen appliance, and everything I have cooked in it has turned brown and crisp. It has four functions, air fry, dehydrate, reheat and roast.

The best part is the main basket and inside grill can go straight into the dishwasher. All-in-all, the quality feels great, it is a lot smaller than other air fryers on the market, and I have had no fails so far with it.

The Air Fryer is currently on sale on Ninja’s website for £99.

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