I spent a week cooking in the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer
Committing to a week-long experience, I was impressed with the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer’s versatility, performance and healthy cooking
Being a home and kitchen writer by trade and a passionate foodie in my personal life, I’m always on the hunt for new recipes, flavours and cooking techniques. Over the years, air fryers have been one of the most popular and praised cooking appliances I’ve covered. Many people have been won over by their much-touted health benefits, energy efficiency, cooking speeds and versatility.
Admittedly, I’ve only tested air fryers in controlled settings. I’ve never lived with one and integrated it into my daily cooking routine. So, when I was invited to try out the Tefal Dual Easy Fry & Grill air fryer for a full week, I was excited to see what interesting dishes I could create and to find out whether it could outmatch my oven.
My day by day food diary below charts my delicious progress, along with some tantalising pictures of my creations.
Monday
Getting the Tefal Dual Easy Fry air fryer setup didn’t take more than a few minutes. The air fryer didn’t need any assembly or preprogramming: all I had to do was give the drawers and cooking plates a quick wash, plug it in and I was good to go.
Like most households, Monday is a busy day for me and my partner. For dinner, we wanted something easy that would produce some leftovers. I roasted a whole chicken over lunch, so we could make a chicken salad for dinner and sandwiches during the week.
You might not automatically associate air fryers with cooking such big items, especially as many have limited space, but Tefal’s Easy Fry has a clever set-up, which allows you to cater for both smaller and larger portions. The drawers are asymmetrical and can fit up to 5.2l and 3.1l, respectively. This means it benefits from a plentiful overall capacity, while also being able to cater for big items, such as a chicken, and a separate side portion.
I prepared a 1.3kg corn-fed chicken and followed the air fryer manual’s recommended cook time of 50 minutes at 160°C. I was impressed with the speediness of the cook and better still, the Easy Fry doesn’t require preheating like an oven would. This allowed me to roast a whole chicken on my lunch break, making for a much more relaxed and leisurely Monday evening dinner. Of course, I still needed something to eat for lunch, so I simultaneously heated some vegetable gyoza in the second, empty drawer.
After cooking, clean-up proved a doddle. The drawers and inserts only needed a quick scrub down with a sponge and some warm soapy water thanks to their non-stick coating. If you have a dishwasher, you’ll be happy to hear that both the drawers and the cooking plates are dishwasher-safe, making things even simpler.
Tuesday
The feature of the Tefal Dual Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill I was most excited to try out was the grill function, which isn’t something I’ve encountered in an air fryer before. There are plenty of delicious-looking dishes included in the fryers’ recipe booklet but I decided to try something a little different for my go on the grill. For Tuesday’s dinner, I picked up two fillets of sockeye salmon and some asparagus.
I set the main basket of the Tefal to grill my salmon for seven minutes, then set the other basket at a lower temperature for ten minutes. The Easy Fry has a handy sync function which, when activated, makes sure both your baskets will finish simultaneously, regardless of time or temperature.
The Easy Fry’s grill function requires a ten-minute preheat, after which, it lets out an audible beep to let you know it is ready. My salmon landed on the grill plate with a satisfying sizzle. Then, with my fish and asparagus happily cooking away, I cooked some rice and teriyaki sauce separately to finish off the dish.
In just over ten minutes, everything was finished and plated, coming together nicely after what felt like suspiciously little effort. The salmon was cooked through but still delicately flaky and the skin had crisped up beautifully on the grill. Similarly, the asparagus, which I usually tend to overcook, was tender and tasty.
I was really pleased with how this turned out. It felt very put together for a Tuesday evening, but was super simple to prepare.
Wednesday
Seasonality is a big trend in cooking at the moment and getting more vegetables into your diet never goes out of fashion, so on Wednesday evening I wanted to make a dish centred around summer.
I picked up a courgette, red onion, some ripe cherry tomatoes and potato gnocchi. The only prep needed for this dinner was to give everything a quick chop, a drizzle of olive oil and a season with salt and pepper, which kept things quick and simple. I managed to fit two hearty portions in the Easy Fry without overfilling its spacious 8.3l capacity.
I cooked everything together at 200°C for just 25 minutes, briefly opening the drawers halfway through to give it a quick stir. One thing I particularly appreciated was how easy it was to check in on and adjust your food mid-cook. Simply popping open the drawer and giving things a quick shake is so simple.
After 25 minutes the gnocchi had a crisp exterior and the vegetables showed some nice colour. I also stirred through some garlic and topped with basil leaves and feta for a final flourish. Looking back on the week, I think this dish might have been my favourite to cook in the Tefal Easy Fry. It was healthy, full of seasonal produce and was easy to prep. It also cooked quickly and needed very little oversight. A great healthy, hands-off dish.
Thursday
Thursday night was dinner at a friend’s house, so I decided to quickly whip up something in the Easy Fry to bring along.
I often forget that air fryers are great for baking, as well as lunch and dinner, so I decided to cook some savoury muffins. This recipe worked a treat and also helped me use up some leftovers, namely the feta from yesterday’s gnocchi and olives from Monday’s salad.
Once everything was added and gently stirred, I separated my mixture into twelve cases. I have a compact muffin tin that just about fits in the roomy main drawer of the Easy Fry, which I used to cook most of the muffins. However, I was also able to cook some freestanding in the smaller drawer, much to my surprise.
After air frying for just 25 minutes, the muffins were done. They had browned nicely on the outside and were deliciously soft, fluffy and cheesy inside. Most importantly, our friends were impressed by my baking and were pleasantly surprised to learn the muffins had been made in an air fryer. Success.
Friday
I had more time to cook on Friday evening, so I decided to try a fun and tasty asian-fusion fakeaway. Wanting some bright, flavourful and full of texture, I settled on a trio of gojuchang tofu, crispy potatoes and asian slaw.
Prep for this one was nice and simple. I seasoned my potato with some spices and added soy, corn flour and breadcrumbs to tofu for maximum crispiness. My tofu had plenty of space to crisp in the large drawer, while the potatoes went into the smaller one. I set the Tefal Easy Fry’s drawers to different times and temperatures and then used the sync feature to ensure they were done at the same time.
After some quick sauce and garnish, everything was ready to plate and eat in under 30 minutes. Not only did this dish look great, it tasted indulgent and had that crispness you associate with a Friday evening takeaway, despite using very little oil to cook. What’s more, of all the ways to cook tofu, I think using the Easy Fry is the easiest and most effective I’ve found.
Saturday
The weekend can only mean one thing – a leisurely brunch. Indulgent french toast is one of my favourite treats, but as I’m trying to eat healthier at the moment, I decided to eschew frying in butter and opted instead to devise a lower fat, air fryer French toast recipe.
I used some leftover challah bread, which I cut into thick batons before dredging it in a mixture of milk, eggs, cinnamon and vanilla extract. My partner loves pears, so for an accompaniment I glazed one with maple syrup and cinnamon. Once prepped, I placed my batons into the larger drawer of the Tefal Easy Fry and the pear halves into the smaller compartment. The pears only took ten minutes to cook, while the French toast took just five, after which I plated up with some raspberries and a dollop of yoghurt and honey.
As I wasn’t following a recipe from the booklet, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Cooked without butter or oil in the Easy Fry, the toast came out crispy on the outside but fluffy on the inside, with a lovely sweet flavour throughout. They were also much lighter and less rich than ordinary French toast, which is ideal if you’re trying to achieve a healthy lifestyle without giving up your favourite food.
Sunday
Today, I decided on some summery air-fried sandwiches for dinner and courgette fries for lunch with a crispy coating of breadcrumbs and parmesan.
I’m usually sceptical about healthy alternatives that label themselves fries. However, these courgette fries turned out to be one of the highlights of the week. The flavour-packed coating crisped up magnificently in the Tefal Easy Fry, while the courgette was snappy, yet tender. They were so quick and easy, I even made a note to wheel them out whenever I need a snack to impress guests.
Closing out a week of fun, tasty and most importantly – easy – meals, we made nduja and mozzarella toasted sourdough sandwiches. After giving them a brush down with olive oil, I air-fried both sandwiches in the Easy Fry’s large basket for just ten minutes. This was the simplest meal of the whole week, taking just 20 minutes in total including prep, but was also one of the tastiest. The sourdough developed a satisfying crunchy exterior and the mozzarella and nduja melted together to form a delicious pizza-style centre.
Like all my meals throughout the week, clean up was quick and painless, which is exactly what you need on a Sunday evening.
How was my week with the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer and Grill?
At the start of the week, I was worried that cooking all my meals in an air fryer might be limiting and uninspiring. However, the complete opposite turned out to be true.
During my week with the Tefal Easy Fry & Grill, I instead broke out of a cooking rut and managed to make a wide range of tasty and healthy meals, thanks to its versatile and efficient set-up.
The large overall 8.3l capacity of the Easy Fry offered plenty of room and its asymmetrical cooking space, with one 5.2l and one 3.1l drawer, was well suited to cooking full meals with a main and a side. Unlike oil-soaked oven and pan-fried dishes, the meals I cooked in Tefal’s Easy Fry came out light and healthy, with most dishes needing no more than a brush of olive oil to turn out food that was crispy and full of flavour. I was really impressed with the Easy Fry’s performance on vegetables, with my gnocchi and veg bake and my courgette fries being the two tastiest dishes of the week. Another great feature that expands the Easy Fry’s range is its grill setting, which recreates the taste and texture of food cooked on an outdoor grill thanks to its high temperatures and grill plate.
As well as offering exciting cooking options, the Easy Fry also proved eminently practical. The cooking presets and easy-to-use controls made dinners simple and the handy sync function allowed me to make sure both drawers would always finish at the same time.
Things also moved quickly with the Easy Fry, thanks to its powerful heating element and fan, which consistently cooked items quicker than my oven. Its non-stick, dishwasher-safe parts also significantly reduced the amount of time I spent washing dishes.
After spending a week with the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer, you can consider me an air fryer convert.
