stuart james beall

This will be a multi-part blog. I’ve had a Ninja Air Fryer for about 3 years, and still don’t use it much. Why? Because old habits die hard. And if you’re married, old habits die hard-er. Go figure.

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Poor Man’s Pizza

When I was a single man, I did this with an old-school toaster oven. With an air fryer, it’s faster, and cleanup is a little easier. But it tastes just as good no matter what oven you use.

The photo shows ciabatta bread, but you can use ANY bread you like. I like rye bread, French bread, hot dog buns, sourdough football bread. Stale supermarket potato rolls? Give it a go.

Spread some garlic butter on the soft face of your bread. I have a great garlic butter recipe here. Grill it on the air fryer rack about 3 minutes at 400 degrees. I used the Air Broil setting.

Now open a jar of pasta sauce or marinara sauce. Use a spoon to spread some on the bread you just grilled. Sprinkle some grated cheese on top… I prefer mozzarella or white cheddar. Put the bread back onto your air fryer rack, and bake about 7 minutes at 400 degrees. I used the Air Roast setting.

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Plantain Snacks

Plantains look a lot like bananas, but they must be cooked before eating. Sweet, fully ripe plantain is soft, or mushy, and can be baked much like summer squash, or yams. It tastes good with a little brown sugar and honey. I’m not doing that here. Sorry.

I like using green plantains, which means the skin is still green. The fruit inside is mostly firm.

I love sliced plantain, fried in a cast iron skillet, with some sea salt. It’s a lot like fresh potato chips. So why not cook it in an air fryer? For best flavor, coat the slices with a vegetable oil before placing on the rack. Then shake on some sea salt. The oil will help the salt to stick to the plantain slices.

Another option I’ve seen with air fryers is to spray the rack with non-stick cooking spray. That’s fine, but it may not bring out the flavor like a corn oil bath.

Choose the air fry setting, at a temperature of 375 degrees.

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S’mores

So maybe you want S’mores without the hassle of building a fire in your backyard. Or you don’t want to use your propane grill, because you didn’t clean off all the grease from your last hamburger cookout.

As long as you got the three simple ingredients, you’re good to go. Do it in your air fryer! Lay out the Graham crackers on the baking pan. Put the chocolate on one side, and the marshmallows on the other. For this recipe, I used Jet-Puffed marshmallows, sliced in half.

Air broil on low, for no more than three minutes. That’s about when the marshmallows get toasted. Flip over the chocolate side, laying on top of the marshmallows. Now change the air fryer setting to air fry, at a temperature of 375 degrees, for two more minutes.

Watch out! These things come out hot, so use a butter knife to slide them out onto a plate.

Substitutions. You can try all sorts of chocolates here. Kisses, white chocolate chips, sliced candy bars (Snickers, Milky Way, Baby Ruth). Spread Nutella onto the Graham cracker, but don’t broil that side of it.