A beautiful delicious buttery oozy crispy air fryer cheese toastie with thick pumpkin seed bread, perfectly melted cheese and ham to finish off that yummy saltiness needed to make this the ultimate best ever toastie!
I will be honest I can almost guarantee this will be your new go to lunch! It is so quick and easy to make in the air fryer you will wonder why you didn’t make it sooner.
If you didn’t think you could improve the cheese and ham toastie, I am here to tell you that your’e wrong! This cheese and ham toastie made in the air fryer takes toasties to the next level.
So, in my opinion there are two kinds of people…
People who are in love with their air fryer because it’s simply the best invention known to man….and people who don’t have an air fryer… it really is as simple as that.
The day my air fryer came into my life everything changed. My oven has been used a handful of times since that day and honestly it has made life so much easier.
Why you’ll love this recipe….
- Delicious crispy bread
- Ooozy melty cheese
- Quick and easy lunch or evening meal with sides
- Made using simple ingredients
- Uses Healthy Extra A when following Slimming World
- Looks so impressive
- Full of flavour
- The whole family will love it
Ingredient Information
- Bread – 3 Slices of your favourite bread. Here I have used Tesco Finest sunflower and pumpkin loaf. These are 120 Calories per slice so you may wish to reduce the calories and use a more standard bread.
- Cheese – I used 80g of reduced fat cheddar cheese. If you are following Slimming World this can be used as 2 of your Healthy Extra A portions.
- Ham – Any good quality ham can be used here.
- Butter – I used Clover Light which works great. The bread only needs to be coated on the top and bottom of the sandwich.
- Tomato – I top the sandwich with two slices of tomato which just finishes the sandwich off perfectly.
Related article: What is Healthy Extra A?
Let’s talk equipment….
Which air fryer? I use the Ninja Food MAX Dual Zone 9.5L Air Fryer with an extra large capacity. This means it can cook two different foods at the same time. I got mine from Very and but do have some other alternatives. Click here to see their full range.
The main reason I went for the dual air fryer was because I am constantly cooking different meals for my kiddos! This has made life much easier because one can have nuggets and one can have a pie and I can sync it all to finish at the same time! Win win for any busy mum!
What is an Air Fryer?
Air fryers are small kitchen appliances that operate like a convection oven except in a smaller, more concentrated space.
The air is circulated at a high temperature and evenly around the food, which makes the food cook more quickly than in a conventional oven and helps give foods a crispy coating without the need for lots of oil and fat.
Can I save money by using an Air Fryer?
Air fryers cook food fast at a really high temperature with a fan. A typical air-fryer (1,000W) costs just 34p per hour, which is roughly the same wattage and energy consumption as a conventional oven, but it heats up quickly and you can cook meals in a fraction of the time, making it a great-value cooking method.
For example: I can cook an entire roast chicken in the air fryer for 1 hour with no pre heating…. In the oven it takes approx. 1.5 hours and at least 15 minutes of pre heating. Also the chicken tastes amazing from the air fryer as it retains all of the moisture!
Air Fryer Tips and Tricks
- Don’t over fill the drawer.
- Remove drawer and shake regularly during cooking. Especially for foods such as Chips.
- Turn food such as chicken half way through the cooking time.
- It’s not necessary to preheat the air fryer before cooking. If you do, it could change the cook time of your recipe. Only preheat if the recipe you’re following says to do so.
- Use minimal oil, using too much can make foods very greasy.
- You must reduce temperature and cooking time when using an air fryer. See chart below.
How to make the best ever cheese and ham toastie in the air fryer
- First butter the outside pieces of the bread. This helps everything to stick together and stops things from flying away when the air fryer is running.
- Grate the cheese and divide it into 3 equal shares.
- Place cheese and ham between slices, then top the sandwich cheese and 2 slices of tomato.
- Place the toastie into the air fryer drawer carefully. I recommend making the toastie on the air fryer grill plate so that you can then pop it in without it all falling apart.
- Set the air fryer to MAX CRISP setting if you have this or simple Air fry mode will work okay too. Temp 220c. The toastie takes 10 – 12 minutes to cook through. Check regularly and I recommend spinning half way through. Don’t flip.
Is this recipe Slimming World Friendly?
If you swap the bread for some Healthy Extra B alternative and swap the butter for low calorie cooking spray this could absolutely be a Slimming World favourite.
Serving Suggestions
What should I serve my best ever cheese and ham toastie with? Here’s a few ideas…..
- Soup… this would a perfectly side dish to any soup. Check out some of my soup recipes here.
- A huge delicious side salad.
- Slimming World friendly chips using this delicious recipe here.
Have you created this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment below or share a photo on Instagram tagging me at @fatgirlskinny__ and the hashtag #fatgirlskinny.
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Please note: I was gifted a free air fryer and compensated for this post. However I do not make any compensation from sales through very.co.uk and all words are my own.