Tefal ActiFry Snacking (review)

The Tefal ActiFry Snacking is available to buy from Ideal World TV does everything the standard ActiFry can do, but it's also perfect for creating delicious snacks. It boasts healthy and nutritious, handsfree cooking, whether you fancy chips, meat, fish, vegetables, curry or stir fry and it's extremely easy to use and clean.

Now, I’ve been testing one of these amazing cooking gadgets for myself, so if you want more in-depth info about what it does, read on…

The Tefal ActiFry Snacking is an incredibly clever gadget for cooking low fat foods. It works in quite a simple way. Inside, there's a pan with a paddle.

You pop it a tiny amount of oil, measured using the spoon provided. And I do mean tiny amount. You only need one little spoon of oil for 1kg of crispy french fries, meaning they'll have less than 3% fat.

And then you add your chips, risotto, stir fry or whatever else you want to cook, close the lid, set the timer and wait for it to beep, which means your dinner is ready. There's no preheating and no complicated buttons - it's just a case of press and go! The paddle works the food around the pan, distributing the heat evenly for fast, low fat cooking.

There are loads of recipes in the supplied booklet to get you started. I'm really impressed with how simply and efficiently it can make a change to your diet.

This new model, available from Ideal World, also comes with a snacking attachment. You simply remove the paddle and instead fit this wire mesh. Pop on samosas, homemade chicken nuggets, spring rolls - anything you fancy, close the lid and cook. It kind of sounds like there's a quiet hair drier running as it cooks, rotating the food as it goes.

For chicken nuggets, you just spray them with oil before you pop them in, but for these meatballs, made with 250g lean beef and some seasoning, I didn't add any oil at all, just popped them on the mesh and set the timer to 10 minutes. They came out beautifully juicy and well cooked, and the excess fat simply collected in the pan below.

Cleaning is a breeze. The nonstick pan is removable, as it the mesh and paddle. I just rinse them all under hot water once cool, giving any burnt-on patches a quick wipe round with a brush, then pat it all dry. The parts are all dishwasher safe too.

For storage, the pan hand collapses flush to the body, so it only takes up slightly more room that a large cooking pot.

I think this is a brilliant machine for anyone looking to reduce the fat in their diet. I can see it appealing to everyone from people living alone who don't always want to put the oven on just to make a small meal, right up to families who want healthy meals without excessive saturated fats.

And it's so convenient, anyone home from work late could tip in the ingredients for a stir fry, set it to about 20 minutes, get changed and freshened up and return to the kitchen to a healthy meal that's cooked and ready to eat. Pretty cool, I reckon.

We were sent an Tefal ActiFry Snacking for review. Ideal World supplied another for giveaway.