Tefal Actifry. Dork Review

Diets suck.

Cutting out all the good stuff, eating salad and counting calories is a seriously boring way to spend your time. But for many of us, it’s essential to keep an eye on our food, to ensure we don’t end up shopping in the tent section of Argos.

One way of doing that is by altering the way we cook our food. Which is where the Tefal Actifry (£131.50) comes in. This alternative electric fryer cooks your chips with a tiny amount of oil, rather than submerging them in it.

I recently got a chance to try the ActiFry out. Here’s how it went.

The ActiFry is really simple to use. Simply pop your peeled and sliced potatoes into the tub of the ActiFry, pour a tablespoon of oil over the chips using the mini measuring spoon and close the lid.

The top of the AcriFry has a LCD display where you can choose the amount of time you want the chips to be cooked for, and hit start. 45 minutes later, you’ve got tasty and crispy chips.

This fryer isn’t limited to chips either. You can cook meat, fish, rice and stir-fried vegetables. The accompanying cookbook gives an assortment of ideas.

Here’s my verdict:

Wins points for

• Ease of use: The time consuming bit is the peeling and slicing of the potatoes
• Lack of odour: Unlike its full-fat brothers, the ActiFry has an odourless filter to stop your kitchen smelling like a fish and chip shop.
• Dishwasher safe: Most of the bits can be bunged in the dishwasher, although there is very little to clean up thanks to the lack of oil.

Loses points for

• Time it takes to cook: It takes 40-45 minutes to cook enough chips for a family of four.
• Noise: When it’s cooking, it has quite a loud humming sound. Not great if you have thin walls and irritable neighbours.

Conclusion

I’m a convert! I genuinely loved this product, and the chips went down really well with my picky family. A friend of mine uses her ActiFry regularly to create Cajun wedges,  and I’d like to try a few more adventurous meals with it. Especially if I can use it to cook a variety of foods in a healthy way.

Emma Cossey

Emma is our resident fashion and social media specialist, having worked as a blogger, editor and writer on a number of fashion and beauty websites. She writes regularly for The Bag Lady, and has previously written for The Times Online, Shoewawa and Jorg & Olif among others.

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