Search
Login
Foodies Only in your inbox
By clicking "Subscribe", you agree to ourPrivacy Policy and to receive marketing emails from Foodies Only
SearchLoginSearchLoginCopyright © 2025 Foodies Only
5 min
03/12/2025
If someone asked about traditional Indian snacks in a rapid-fire round, the top results would most probably involve deep-fried, crunchy snacks. There’s just something about their oily goodness that hits the taste buds just right. Unfortunately, it can also hit the calorie counter, the cholesterol levels, and increase the risk of obesity and heart disease. Especially if consumed regularly. That’s where the air-fryer comes into the picture.
If kitchen appliances were a place for memes, home chefs would be declaring, “friendship cancelled with oil, air is my new best friend” (iykyk). All thanks to the air fryer. Invented in 2006, the air fryer has fast become a common kitchen appliance with more and more people using it to transform traditional snacks into healthy treats. In fact, much-loved traditional Indian snacks like samosa, pakora, tikki, kachori, and more require significantly less amount of oil in an air fryer to yield the same results. But how does an air fryer achieve this result? And what snacks work best? Find out all this and more here.
In the simplest terms, an air fryer is a kitchen appliance that uses hot air to cook food that would normally be fried in oil or roasted. It’s similar to a convection oven. It usually includes a removable cooking basket with a tray or mesh shelves where you place the food. It’s a quicker and healthier way of cooking food because it uses less oil (especially compared to deep frying). In fact, despite the word fryer in the title, an air fryer does not actually fry food. Rather, it uses heat to cook.
Essentially, the cooking chamber in an air fryer uses a heating element (like an electrical coil), placed near the food, to radiate heat. A fan moves this hot air around the food, cooking it in the process. With air fryers, especially commercial versions, reaching temperatures as high as 250 °C, it significantly reduces the requirement for oil in cooking.
Now that you know how an air fryer works, it’s time to put the appliance to use and whip up healthier versions of traditional Indian snacks:
Arguably one of the most popular street snacks in India, a samosa consists of a dough made from all-purpose flour, stuffed with a spiced potato mix and deep fried. Samosa can be stuffed with other fillings too, like keema for a non-vegetarian version and noodles for a fusion version. To make samosas, the dough is stretched and rolled into a cone shape, stuffed with the filling, and sealed tightly before frying. When cooking in the air-fryer version, the stuffed samosas are lightly brushed with oil before being air-fried at 180°C–200°C for 10–15 minutes.
Calorie comparison: A deep-fried medium aloo samosa has ~250–300 kcal, whereas an air-fried one has ~140–170 kcal.
Aloo tikki is made from shallow-frying a spiced, mashed potato mix. It’s usually served with yoghurt, tamarind chutney, and mint chutney and is a popular street snack. It can also be deep-fried, but the healthiest version is the one that comes from air frying. Frying, in any form, gives the tikki a signature crispy exterior while maintaining a soft interior.
Calorie comparison: A deep-fried medium aloo tikki has ~220 kcal, whereas an air-fried one has 50% fewer calories, with ~90-120 kcal.
A vegetable cutlet, or even a meat cutlet, is cooked the same way as an aloo tikki. The only difference is in the ingredients – a wider range of vegetables for the former, and mashed meat for the latter.
Pakoras are fritters often made by coating vegetables in a batter of spiced gram flour and deep-frying in hot oil. A staple of the rainy season, pakoras can be made from paneer, potatoes, cauliflower, spinach leaves, and even bread. For air-fryer pakoras, the batter has to be thicker (runny batter has excess moisture that can prevent crisping in an air fryer). Also, using parchment paper liners can make cleanup easier.
Calorie comparison: Air-fried pakoras (onion, for example) have ~150kcal, half of the deep-fried version, which could have anywhere between ~250–300 kcal.
Fryums are commonly found in Indian fetes and fairs and were the OG chips, long before packaged snacks made their way to our homes. Usually made from ingredients like potato starch, sago, or rice flour, they puff up when deep-fried. What makes them especially attractive to kids is that they come in diverse shapes and colours. You can get raw fryums and air-fry them at home. Just place them in a single layer in the air fryer basket, preheat the air fryer to around 180°C and cook for 3–5 minutes, shaking the basket halfway through.
Calorie Comparison: There is a dramatic drop because fryums absorb a LOT of oil. While the air-fried version only has ~110–140 kcal, the deep-fried version can have as high as ~350 kcal.
Mathri is a type of flaky, crispy biscuit or cracker. Originating from Rajasthan, it’s a snack that stores well and is often enjoyed with evening tea. It’s usually made from a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat flours, ghee, and spices like carrom seeds, cumin seeds, and, in some cases, even fenugreek (methi). In the air-fryer version, the shaped mathris (small circles with holes pricked in them to avoid puffing when cooking) are lightly brushed with oil and air-fried for 3-5 minutes at 180°C.
Calorie Comparison: Since mathri uses refined flour, the difference is not significant — 70 kcal in the deep-fried version vs 40 kcal in the air-fried version (for a single piece). However, when consumed in large quantities (which is common with mathris), the overall difference is noteworthy.
An air fryer is clearly a useful kitchen appliance. But to make the most of it, keep some important tips in mind:
Preheat the air fryer for a few minutes before adding food. This helps in providing an evenly cooked exterior and can speed up cooking time, similar to preheating a conventional oven. It is especially recommended for frozen food, but it is not always necessary for other items like vegetables, reheating leftovers, or foods that cook quickly.
Arrange items in a single layer in the basket to ensure hot air circulates properly. If cooking large quantities, cook in batches. You can also check midway to ensure the items are being cooked properly.
From traditional Indian snacks and kid-friendly appetisers (like French fries) to healthy sides (stuffed bell peppers, roasted vegetables) and fusion dishes (like gobhi manchurian), the air fryer makes it all. This is one kitchen tool that doesn’t ask you to reinvent the wheel; simply tweak the steps for low-calorie, high-nutrition results.