Air Fryer Cookbook Review: Every Day Easy Air Fryer

To preface this air fryer cookbook review, I will say that this is a real review from someone that actually owns the cookbook. I have seen way too many cowboys on the internet simply copying Amazon reviews and calling it a cookbook “review”. You will find none of that here!! Here is my “real” Every Day Easy Air Fryer cookbook review!

Yes, that is a long title! I know! But trust me, this is one of the most criminally underrated air fryer cookbooks around. I love the writing style in this cookbook, the author is open and honest about everything that she says. It is not just a cold and to the point cookbook, she actually adds her personal touch and story. I like this a lot!

Who is this author?

Her name is Urvashi Pitre. She moved from India to America 30 years ago. It sounds like she accidentally fell into teaching others to cook well, stating in her book “that she didn’t even know she could cook”.

She now runs a blog called Two Sleevers, and has published several well received cookbooks.

As I said before, I enjoyed Urvashi’s writing style and tone during my time with her cookbook, and it makes me interested to check out her other offerings!

The low down on this cookbook!

Here’s a glimpse at the contents page.

What I love about this cookbook as well, is the fact it includes some essential tips and advice for air fryer users. For example, there is an air fryer myths section which contains good advice that I have also experienced in my air fryer journey. The author talks about what an air fryer is, to make sure the reader has a full understanding of the kitchen appliance they are in command of!!

There is also a pretty decent troubleshooting guide, which will help those readers that are new to the world of air fryers. It goes over those key problems that readers may encounter, but is not exactly an extensive list.

The only thing I want to point out about the start of this cookbook, is that the air fryer accessories page is not that helpful. It mostly contains obvious items that most people would work out they would need anyway. The oil spritzer and rack advice are the only real exceptions to this. It’s OK, at least the author tried, and she gets most things right in this starting section.

The author says that she thoroughly tested her recipes, including trying them in two totally different air fryers. Of course, I haven’t tried all of her recipes (that would be crazy!), however those that I have tried out have worked very well right off the bat. This is a key element that this cookbook seems to get spot on.

I also liked the presentation and quality of this cookbook. Even on the Kindle version, this cookbook looks professional and well put together.  I can imagine the physical version would look even better! Nice looking pictures to accompany simple, but well designed recipes.

This cookbook also includes a traditional index, making it easy for you to find the type of recipes you want. This is something that is not always a given in the current climate where pretty much anyone can publish a cookbook!!

On to the recipes!

Now to the meat and potatoes of any cookbooks, the recipes! Of course, this is the main attraction for most people buying cookbooks and looking for air fryer inspiration.

As every good cookbook should, this one has a clear introduction to every recipe, that even includes information on dietary considerations, such as having eggs or if the recipe is vegetarian. Here is an example of one of these snippets for hard cooked eggs (yes, I know it should be hard boiled eggs but whatever!!).

Now, it’s time to try some of these recipes. Straight away I really like the selection of recipes in this particular cookbook. There are a wide range of recipes, different types of food, simple food, etc. Yes, the author has Indian heritage, so there are quite a few Indian style dishes. But you also find a lot of recipes inspired by other parts of the world.

And these recipes are not just copy and paste typical recipes, that you may find on some places of the internet. You can see lot a lot of the recipes have a twist or style that is unique to this particular author.

I decided to go with trying a simple recipe first! I chose the grilled cheese, as this is something I had refined myself and I wanted to see how this cookbook fared compared to my own recipe.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. The cookbook even new a trick that I had learned myself after frequenting various air frying Facebook groups for a while. It sounds weird, but it is the idea of putting mayonnaise on the outside of your sandwich. It works great and I was surprised to find this nugget of information included.

Not exactly a traditional recipe for grilled cheese, as it included using brie and capicola (which was hard for me to get, so i replaced with parma ham!). I actually really liked the end result, and the mayonnaise trick made sure the outside of the bread was crisped to perfection. Something I would definitely try again.

Onto my next example, recipe. This time we are tying the crispy cracked pepper chicken wings. My wife and I both love chicken wings and often cook them in the air fryer, so this was an obvious choice!

Straight away, I like the honest introduction to this recipe. I agree that you will never get a breaded coating from an air fryer that equals that from a deep fat fryer, and the author does well to clearly spell this out.

Here is the recipe picture straight from the recipe book.

I found this recipe interesting, as it used a flour breading. When I tried this in the past, I would use the traditional method of egg to help the breading stick to the chicken. I would then have to spray a little oil on this coating before cooking, to make sure it was still crispy (otherwise you end up with a lot of dry floury breading).

This recipe took a different approach, using vegetable oil instead of egg. On top of this, the recipe didn’t suggest spritzing or spraying oil on the coating as I have done with the egg method.

What was the result? Well, I am happy to report that our wings came out crispy and yummy. This seemed to be a much better way to bread chicken for an air fryer, than I had tried before with egg. 

The only thing I wasn’t as keen on was the use of vegetable oil, which is not horribly unhealthy but not incredibly healthy either. Next time, I will try this recipe with olive oil instead, to see if the result is comparable!

On the subject of healthy….

As I have raised the healthy tag line, I should clarify that this book does not in any way claim to be healthy. The title of the book doesn’t include the word (or any associated words), and the author doesn’t make any major health claims. You can also see this from her choice of ingredients for her recipes. Most things are full fat and not light or healthy versions. The author does refer to how air frying uses less oil than traditional frying, but is not attempting to make light or healthy recipes herself. It’s more that the method of cooking is healthier.

Personally, I don’t mind this. However, if you are looking specifically for a health conscious cookbook, this one is not for you.

Final Verdict?

As you might imagine, I really do like this cookbook. 

It is well made and published, even on Kindle! It has a good selection of well made and tested air fryer recipes.

OK, the tips and advice section at the start of the book is not full proof, but does offer a good starting point for any air fryer user.

I would recommend this air fryer cookbook, as long as you are not looking for a particularly healthy cookbook!

Have you read this cookbook? If you have your own opinions, we would love to hear all about them in the comments section below!

Happy air frying!!