I've spent the last three months living with a ninja, and I don’t mean the type to jump out of the shadows, no, this Ninja lives on my kitchen countertop, and the only thing its fighting, is my urge to get takeout!
It all started when I borrowed a Ninja Speedi from a family member. I was sceptical about the glowing reviews until one exhausting evening, I found myself without a meal plan. Faced with the choice to cook, order takeout, or give this much-praised Speedi a whirl, I chose the Speedi.
Wowwwww.
It was only meatballs in sauce with pasta, but it took about 3 minutes to put together into the machine, I pressed the button, went off to set the table and bosh, dinner was ready. I needed one to keep, and I wanted all the features.
As someone who loves to cook, and who came into the Ninja experience with low expectations, I was blown away by how simple it was, and I visualised a future of easy mid-week meals. And this, my dear reader, to risk spoiling your reading joy, is a story that has a happy ending.
What's it all about?
1. Ninja Foodi
The Foodi is an 11-in-1 or 15-in-1 beast, (depending on the model), features an air fryer, pressure cooker, and a combination cook feature. It can be used to cook very simple things - like a pasta + sauce with vegetables and meat or vegan protein, more involved things, like kebab skewers (I made a Lamb Doner in mine the other day and had to fight back tears of joy), all the way through to very complex and involved things (I've made bread, chicken cordon bleu with runner beans and mash, pulled pork, salmon, whole cooked chickens… you name it….!).
The Foodi has a round cooking pot, which does make for some slightly awkward bread shapes, though there are rectangular inserts that you can use. The knockout feature for me was the Pressure Cooker - I'd never used one before, and approached it with some fear first time around, but it totally changed how I cook whole chicken!
The Foodi's superpower is cooking frozen chicken breast, direct from the freezer. Yep - it does that, and it does it really, really well. Beware though, the Foodi is pretty big, and it really needs its space, not just in its footprint, but also heightwise - the lid is attached and flips up, so it'll struggle to live underneath a cupboard, so measure up before buying one.
2. Ninja Speedi
The Speedi is a slimmed down, but still very powerful machine, and is the one that I borrowed.
It is much smaller than the Foodi, and the cooking pot is square-ish. It has a rack that sits in the top during the Speedi Meals setting. My only gripe is that the rack is completely flat, and doesn’t have an easy way to pick it up when its hot - I used tongs, and because I couldn’t keep it perfectly flat, one of my meatballs rolled on to the floor.
With hindsight, I should've used the tongs to move the food *then* lifted the top off… it was such a minor, passing issue, that we've all moved on from that near catastrophic disastrous incident.
I only spent one weekend with the Speedi. I loved it, cooked up a whole bunch of stuff, got myself over to Amazon, and ordered the bigger, higher spec model (the Foodi 15-in-1 OL750UK) for next day delivery.
Feature Comparisons
For an omnivore like me, versatility, capability, and whole-chicken capacity are crucial. The Ninja range offers three viable options, with the 15-in-1 being my preference due the integrated thermometer, its ability to do bulk cooking, and because it can comfortably hold a proper family-sized chicken:
Disclosure: Links marked with an asterisk below are Amazon affiliate links, so if you buy something from the list, we may get a small commission.
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Feature | OL550UK | OL750UK | ON400UK |
Capacity (L) | 6 | 7.5 | 5.7 |
Serves (up to) | 4 | 6 | 4 |
Dimensions (H x W x D, cm) | 33 x 35 x 36 | 36 x 35 x 36 | 31 x 33 x 35 |
Weight (kg) | 10.9 | 11.7 | 6.5 |
Wattage (w) | 1460 | 1760 | 1760 |
Integrated Thermometer | No | Yes | No |
Cooking Functions | Pressure cook, Steam Air Fry, Steam Bake, Air Fry, Grill, Bake, Dehydrate, Sear/Saute, Steam, Slow Cook, Yogurt | Pressure Cook, Steam Meals, Steam Air Fry, Steam Roast, Steam Bake, Steam Bread, Air Fry, Grill, Bake, Dehydrate, Prove, Sear/Saute, Steam, Slow Cook, Yogurt | Speedi Meals, Steam Air Fry, Steam Bake, Steam, Grill, Air Fry, Bake/Roast, Dehydrate, Sear/Sauté, Slow Cook |
Included Accessories | Reversible Rack, Cook & Crisp Basket, 6L Removable Cooking Pot, Silicone Ring, Condensation Collector, Instruction Booklet, Quick Start Guide, Inspiration Guide | 2-Tier Reversible Rack, Cook & Crisp Basket, 7.5L Removable Cooking Pot, Silicone Ring, Digital Cooking Probe, Probe Storage Compartment, Probe Cap, Condensation Collector | Cook & Crisp Tray, 5.7L Removable Cooking Pot, Condensation Collector |
Recipe Guide | Included | Included | Included |
Maximum Chicken Size (kg) | 2 | 3 | 1.6 |
The Different Cooking Methods
1. Air Frying
Air frying is a healthier alternative to traditional frying, using hot air circulation to cook food that produces a crispy layer similar to frying but with significantly less oil. It's ideal for those who are health-conscious but still crave the texture and taste of fried food.
It's completely different to what I imagined. There's no spinning around of ingredients, and you don’t need to pour oil into some special atomiser… no.
If you're cooking chips, either cut fresh from potatoes and sprayed / drizzled with oil, or supermarket chips, you fire up the Foodi, set it to Air Fry on 200c for 15 mins, and walk away. You can give it a shake half way (and it'll suggest you do), but you don’t have to.
The Foodi is - from what I can tell - acting like a high power, small convection cooker, and using the crisper basket base to circulate the hot air through the chips.
I'd be doing it a disservice if I left it there - it can Air Fry dozens of ingredients - if you're interested, take a look at Air Fry pages in the quick start guide (about page 35 onwards).
2. Combination Cooking (Air fry and steam)
Combination cooking in the Ninja appliances incorporates both air frying and steaming. This ensures your meals are cooked quickly while retaining optimal moisture and flavour. It's the go-to option when you desire an ingredient that’s crispy on the outside yet succulent on the inside.
I've cooked entire Chickens using Steam AirFry in about 45 mins, and a frozen chicken breast is cooked in 15 mins. Frozen Salmon takes about 8 minutes, and has the added benefit of the ingredient being about half the price of its fresh counterpart.
3. Pressure Cooking
Pressure cooking uses steam and high pressure to cook food rapidly. It's useful for preparing beans, stews, and tough cuts of meat, maintaining the nutritional value of the ingredients and reducing cooking time significantly.
I was craving some good, slow cooked ribs back in July - I took a rack of ribs, put it on pressure cook for 18 mins, let the pressure cooker release its steam, released the lid, dried the ribs off and squirted some Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce on the ribs, and air fried for 10 mins. It hit the spot, in less than 30 mins.
The pressure cooker steam release looks quite dramatic when you first see it, though the novelty wears off pretty quickly. I was quite worried about pressure cooking and stayed away from it for weeks fearing an explosion, until I saw in the manual that I could do a quick test run: 750ml water, in the device, move the button to "Seal" (the pressure button is super wobbly by design, and its "Sealed" when its at the lowest point in the groove… it doesn’t need to lift up to the shelf: when you see it, you'll know what I mean), then select "Pressure" and press "Go".
I did the test, and it went well.
So I grabbed half a dozen eggs, and pressure cooked those… it went well. I've been pressure cooking since then!
Letting the Ninja Do its Ninja-ing.
I've gone on (and on, and on) about it, I picked up Covid again last week, and it really hit me hard. I spent a week in "No Spoons" mode (links to a previous blog post).
Between my wife and I, we used the Ninja most days to make sure we have good, healthy food on the table. The easy roast chicken, and the Spaghetti Bolognese I made were not just delicious; they were also packed with the nutrients needed to aid my recovery.
I crave carbs when I'm unwell, and I really appreciate the Ninja for its no-effort McCains chips in 15 mins, which I'd cover with gravy and tabasco… ok, so it doesn’t always make *healthy* meals, but on the tasty/healthy scale, this one is so tasty, I can forgive its lack of "healthy" credentials.
We'd managed to hit complete wipe-out towards the end of the week, and I couldn’t even face boiling an egg for breakfast, so I cracked eggs into ramekins, put those into the steamer for 4 mins, and some bread in the toaster, and it made 6 perfectly cooked dippy eggs - enough for the whole family, without any need for stirring / boiling / monitoring / counting / etc.
The fact that all of the parts can go in the dishwasher have made my Ninja my go-to throughout this whole time where I've been poorly; I'm using it even more than normal (who'd have thought that'd be possible)
Recipes
I highly recommend incorporating Ninja products into your kitchen routine. They offer a convenient and healthy way to enjoy a wide array of meals.
We're working hard in the background on the Random Creation House recipe-service, and it's ready to start producing output… but the app isnt, so we're going to make a simple recipe card viewer for the blog. As soon as it's ready, we'll update this section with 10 Ninja-Ready recipes that you might like to try!
That ought to be this week - if you hit sign-up at the top of this post, our system will send you an email when the Recipes are added.
A Stealthy, Ninja Like Conclusion...
The Ninja Foodi totally changed how I cook.
I love to cook - proper cooking - with my oven, pans, chopping boards, and all the utensils and gadgets, but sometimes I just don’t have enough time for all that, and the Ninja does an amazing job at lightening the loads on those days.
I've retired my slow cooker, my George Forman, my Steamer, and a whole bunch of other gadgets, and whilst the Ninja does take up a lot of counter-top space, it's freed up a massive amount of space by making those other tools redundant. If I were really pressed for space, it wouldn’t be so hard to put it away after use.
The huge number of cooking methods they offer, from air frying to pressure cooking, to steaming to proving, even to yoghurt making, allows for culinary creativity and healthy eating, making my Ninja one of my favourite ever additions to my kitchen.
Do you have a favourite Ninja recipe that you think we should know about? Tell us about it at recipes@randomcreationhouse.co.uk! Do you own a Ninja? Do you use a different type of multi-cooker? Tell us your thoughts in the comments, over on Facebook, or here on LinkedIn!