Is this the fastest air fryer on the market? Ninja Speedi review

The Ninja Speedi 10-in-1 Air Fryer promises fluffy grains, delicious mains, and tender greens in under fifteen minutes. In theory, it should be the quickest air fryer on the market. But what is it like on test?

All the best air fryers make a play for claiming to be the quickest model on the market. Whilst some are certainly quick, few deliver results that are actually good in under fifteen minutes. It's not just that though. This promises to steam, bake, and air fry using a ceramic non-stick, which classifies as non-toxic. On paper, this looks like perfection, which is why the Speedi intrigued me so much.

The best Ninja air fryers are already super fast and incredibly user-friendly, so what did they do to this to make the Speedi even better? Can it make the perfect poke bowl? And, most importantly, will I still make good chips in it?

Specifications

Unboxing

Unboxing might not sound like the most exciting part of using an air fryer and, you're right. However, it says a great deal about a brand. Ninja, for example, make great use of their box. They put instructions and useful information about the Speedi in the box. You only need to glance at these and they'll set you one step ahead in the whole cooking process.

The other really great gesture Ninja makes with their packaging is from a sustainability point of view. Everything that comes with the Ninja Speedi, from the wrap around the air fryer right through to its box and buffer, is completely recyclable. You don't need to feel guilty about anything from a waste perspective.

Then, to get you set up, Ninja includes a recipe book. I always think that this is a nice touch, but it's particularly special with the Speedi. The Rapid Cooker Mode recipes are all based on steam-infused air, which is brilliant if you know that you can use it for vegetables, meats, and baking. If you don't, however, it could seem overwhelming. Just flicking through the recipe book will give you ideas, not least because they show you how to build a meal using Speedi's style of cooking.

Who would it suit?

The Ninja Speedi, as the name suggests, is the perfect for people who want air fryers that cook faster than you can say 'fish and chips for dinner?' The Speedi promises (and delivers) crisp, hot food in 15 minutes, whether you opt for air frying or steaming.

As a result of the incredible efficiency offered by the Ninja, I always imagine the Speedi at the heart of a big, busy home. The large basket makes it easy to pour, place, and tip whatever you want for dinner into the air fryer. Then, the simple controls make the rest even easier and speedier.

You'll also get access to ten different cooking settings, some of which use steam for baking, softening, and keeping foods moist and tender. The others will cook, simmer, and crisp up whatever you tip into the basket.

What is it like to use?

The control panel is intuitive, a feature that I have come to expect from Ninja. One half of the menu is for Speedi meals and the other is for air fry/hob. Each function is listed with nifty arrows placed in the middle for toggling between settings.

This is also where you can adjust the temperature and timer for Ninja Speedi settings, so if you know you like your chips a little softer or crisper, you can tailor the results to suit your tastebuds. You wouldn’t even need the instruction manual for this unless you were trying to figure out what the ‘Speedi’ settings do. The best place to look for these is Ninja Speedi meal builder webpage.

Test 1: chips

One of the first tests that any air fryer has to go through with me is chips. I wasn’t sure quite what the Speedi would be able to do with my frozen French fries in 15 minutes, but I’ll tell you, it’s impressive. In just 13 minutes, my chips were perfect.

They’d all coloured with a nice golden crunch, evenly, across the whole batch. The outsides had some wonderful crunch, whilst the fluffy middle was still supremely soft and delicious. I did feel that a few were on the dry side, but for four people’s portions of chips, that’s not a bad result.

In the same batch, I air-fried some bacon. These strips needed just three minutes. The ones that I left in for five minutes were overly crispy. I know my rashers were extremely thin, so I think a thicker cut might need more than five minutes, but that’s an incredible result: even browning, crispy edges, and juice in every bite.

Test 2: fish fingers

I was intrigued to test how the Speedi handles frozen food since that’s normally an air fryer speciality. My main concern is, what can an air fryer do to a fish finger stick that’s frozen right through in just fifteen minutes? The answer is: cook it thoroughly, deeply, and to a temperature that I couldn’t even bite into.

The fish flaked beautifully, like it was almost crumbly and the breadcrumbed outside had some wonderful crunch. All that in 15 minutes? Impressive.

Test 3: grilled vegetables

Grilled vegetables are another classic test and I wanted to give the bake/roast function a whirl here. I added tomatoes, chopped courgette, onion, and aubergine into the air fryer basket, filling the bottom layer. Then, after just ten minutes, the Speedi beeped to tell me the vegetables were done.

In slight disbelief, I lifted the lid to see that they were, in fact, perfectly crisp. Usually, all these wetter vegetables would create steam that hits you in the face when you open the oven door. However, the Speedi neatly funnelled all of this away, so I could actually still see through my glasses. What a result.

Test 4: reheating pizza

Every air fryer should be able to reheat, even if they don't list it on their functions. To test this out, I put cold pizza into the air fryer at 160 degrees. After seven minutes, I lifted it out to find that the base had crisped up, the cheese had melted and bubbled nicely, and all the pizza was lovely and warm. It's unbeatable.

Test 5: Combi meals

One of the brilliant features of the Ninja Speedi is its ability to cook rice as well as steaming salmon, tenderstem broccoli, or tofu. The steam outlet automatically releases pressure, so you don’t need to worry about any of the technicalities. Just set it and let it work.

For the rice, I used the steam function for fifteen minutes. It was an easy, hands-free process that ended up serving me some deliciously fluffy, light rice. My biggest issue came when I was trying to take the hot air fryer basket out of the Speedi, to put the rice in. There aren’t any handles, so have your oven gloves ready.

To steam the salmon (or tofu), I needed to leave the Speedi for nine minutes whilst it pre-heated. Then, I put rice and stock in the base of the Speedi, I lay the fillets into the basket, which sits on top of the rice. Then, ten minutes in, a fairly strong jet of steam was released. Lifting the lid, the salmon looked perfect. Lifting the salmon out, I could also see some perfect rice. Not accounting for the preheat, that’s a really healthy, delicious meal I whipped up in 15 minutes.

Cleaning

The basket is coated in a ceramic non-stick, but it's still dishwasher safe, In fact, Ninja says that all of the accessories are safe to stick in the dishwasher, even though I washed mine by hand. If you want to clean the inside of the air fryer, there's a steam clean setting that will clear any dried or stubborn dirt on the inside of the Speedi.

That's a longer way of saying that this is really easy to clean. The inside is low maintenance and the outside is no maintenance, which is every busy household's dream. If you need some extra help, we've covered how to clean an air fryer in great detail in another article.

How does it compare?

I can see a lot of shared features across the Ninja Speedi and the Ninja Combi. Both are fantastic, but if you want something with a little more space and some more versatile functions, the Combi is worth considering. Whilst it can air fry exceptionally well, the Combi is mainly a countertop oven.

The Speedi has some of Ninja's Combi settings, but they're really well showcased on the Combi. You can choose over 12 different cooking functions. It's incredible. The drawback with the Combi is its size. It's even bigger than the Speedi.

If, on the other hand, you want something smaller than the Speedi, Ninja's DoubleStack will still offer you the delicious salmon and rice bowls that I enjoyed with the Speedi, just in a much more compact model.

You'll also get the benefits of dual drawers that can run at the same time using different settings and timers. It's a little more expensive, but probably worth it if you need yours to be both versatile and speedy.

Should you buy it?

If you want a big, versatile air fryer, the Speedi makes a great investment. It's non-toxic, non-stick, and super speedy. I think the bulkiness means that this leans towards bigger households, especially since it's so versatile too. However, even in my small flat, I think it's worth making space for the Speedi.

How we test

At woman&home, we have a meticulous testing process. Before any air fryer even reaches my kitchen, it's been rigorously researched, so I know exactly what claims it's making and what it's designed to do. Then, when it arrives home, I put the air fryer through a series of standardized tests: making chips, roasted vegetables, fish fingers, and bacon.

Often, I'll do some specific, specialised tests, but those are a great base for checking how well the air fryer crisps food, whether it keeps meats moist, can thaw frozen foods, and achieve tender textures. I'll time the air fryers too, because one of their USPs is how quick they are, so there's no point investing in one that's no quicker than an oven.

After that, I'll clean the air fryer and start to compare it to others. This helps to give a sense of the value of the air fryer. You'll get to know where it sits on the air fryer market, who it suits, and whether I think you should buy it. I always give some competitive alternatives, so that you can get a good sense of having shopped around.

To find out more, you can visit my dedicated page on how we test air fryers.