Reviewed by annieb123 on
The "I Love My Air Fryer" Affordable Meals Recipe Book is a well organized tutorial guide with recipes developed and collected by Aileen Clark. Due out 10th Oct 2021 from Simon & Schuster on their Adams Media imprint, it's 224 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
Despite having had an air fryer for a while, we rarely used it (except to make popcorn and precut frozen french fries). After testing out this cookbook, the air fryer hasn't even been packed away in the cabinet since. Air fryers are really surprisingly versatile and this cookbook is packed with enough recipes to keep cooks going for a while. In addition, the recipes emphasize affordable ingredients to keep costs down.
The layout is logical and easy to follow. A short introduction with some money saving shopping tips leads directly to the cookbook. The recipes are arranged thematically: breakfasts, appetizers & snacks, side dishes, chicken mains, beef & pork mains, fish & seafood mains, vegetarian mains, and desserts. There are 175 recipes, enough to keep even the most obsessed cook going for ages.
The recipes are given with American standard measurements only. The ingredients are listed in a bullet list sidebar format along with special info in the headers including tips, approximate costs, background and serving suggestions. There are very few (none, really) which require difficult to source ingredients. Nutritional info is included: calories, fat, protein, sodium, fiber, carbs, and sugar. There are numerous vegetarian options. Some recipes do make use of convenience and pre-made ingredients such as purchased puff pastry and pie dough, but the majority are "from scratch" (for healthier results and to save on costs).
We're definitely going to try more of these. The book is not abundantly photographed (about 20-25% by my rough count), but the photos which are included are well done and serving suggestions are attractive and appropriate. Well written book, tasty recipes. I've dinged half a star for the dearth of photographs. For cooks who -need- photographs for serving ideas, this might be problematic.
Four and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 3 September, 2021: Finished reading
- 3 September, 2021: Reviewed