The Philips Airfryer Turbostar is one of those ‘must have’ kitchen items – what’s not to love about a small fan oven that sits on your bench and makes perfect French fries?
Put simply: the Airfryer Turbostar is a great healthy alternative to deep frying food. It also makes the best homemade fries I’ve managed to make in recent memory.
The Turbostar is an updated version of the original Airfryer. It comes with the same promise of fast, low-fat frying, but this version has new controls and an extra accessory for two-level cooking.
The design is sleek; there’s a top section featuring a heating element and fan, while the bottom section features a pull-out drawer with a cooking basket. At the bottom of the basket is metal mesh, to allow the air to pass through. Then, the bottom of the drawer is made to help circulate the air which is how the airfryer actually works – via the hot air.
There’s no glass window to allow you to see your food being cooked so it’s impossible to check on the progress. But the controls are nice and easy to use. There’s a dial to set the temperature (80-200 degrees Celsius), another dial to set the timer.
You can hear the airfryer working away, but the noise is not loud at all. It sounds almost like an air conditioner, so it’s not loud enough to be distracting.
This is how easy it is to use.
Let’s use French fries as an example. All you do is peel your potatoes, cut into small slices, coat each fry with a tiny amount of oil (don’t pour oil into the basket!) set the timer for 20 minutes, and the temperature for 180. When the timer goes off, open the tray and give them a shake….then I’d suggest you put them back in for another five minutes
The fries were delicious – let’s just say they were nice and soft in the middle, crispy on the outside.
Usually I make my kids chips using oil in a baking tray and cooked in the oven until they’re crisp.
For the same amount of cooking time, my boys all agreed that the Airfryer chips were much tastier!
The Airfryer also comes with its own recipe booklet: from mushroom lasagne to ratatouille, potato gratin and sweet and sour prawns. The basket is small, though so you won’t be able to feed an army. You can, however, purchase an additional double layer rack, for baking, grilling and frying. Also, if you want to cook many of the dishes in the recipe book you’ll need to buy a small baking pan, the perfect size for cakes and quiches.
Asian Chicken Wings: these were super tasty! Finely chop two gloves of garlic, mix with two tablespoons of ginger and one tablespoon of ground cumin. Rub this mix on 500g of chicken wings, place in the Airfryer basket and cook for 15 minutes at 180C.
You can serve with sweet chili sauce and rice – a really nice healthy dish. It’s a whole lot healthier than baking in the oven with a tray-full of oil.
The kids have already asked to have this dish again!
Garlic prawns with crispy potatoes:
We loved this dish. For the prawns simply marinade in a mixture of crushed garlic, chilli flakes, oil and lemon juice. Put the prawns in the basket and cook for just ten minutes.
For the potatoes, slice into wedges, dip them into a small amount of oil, remove prawns from the basket and add the potatoes to cook for 15 minutes. Serve the prawns and potatoes with a tomato and rocket salad – truly delicious and healthy!
Overall, the Philips Airfryer Turbostar is a fabulous addition to the kitchen and it’s sleek enough to keep as a permanent fixture on the bench. I’d highly recommend it for busy families, as it’s also very easy to clean and, if you don’t want to store it on the bench, it’s small enough to put in the cupboard.
Features:
- Uses 18ml oil to cook 800g chips
- 800g food capacity
- 80-200°C
- Timer
- Dishwasher safe parts
This post was produced in partnership with Philips. For more information about the Philips Airfryer Collection, click here.
