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Our favourite slow cooker is currently on sale for just £140 and we love that it only takes 15 minutes to cook a full meal for 4, making it ideal for busy families and meal prepping.
When it comes to kitchen appliances, today’s consumers are amazed. New models come with more convenient features, and even the most modest Ninja machine comes with air frying, dehydration, baking and heating functions.
The best air fryers, like the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone, offer a lot of features at a more affordable price, making them a good choice if you’re willing to forgo settings like steaming and pressure cooking. However, if you’re looking for maximum versatility and efficiency, we think the Ninja Foodi 11-in-1 SmartLid Multi-Cooker and the Speedi 10-in-1 Air Fryer and Pressure Cooker are two of the best options.
While we encourage you to check out our other multi-functional cooking products like the Instant Pot Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid or the Crock-Pot Multi-Cooker, in this article we’ll focus on the Ninja Foodi and Speedi, comparing prices, designs, features, and more to help you choose the best option.
The full price of the Ninja Foodi 11-in-1 is a staggering £300. However, the Ninja Speedi 10-in-1 doesn’t come cheap, with a regular retail price of around £250. Luckily, you can often pick them up at a discount on the Ninja website or look for deals on Amazon, with the average prices for the Foodi and Speedi being £246 and £202 respectively. The price difference can be attributed to factors such as the Speedi’s smaller capacity (5.7 litres versus 6 litres) and fewer cooking functions. However, the Speedi offers largely similar settings to the Foodi, with the only major difference being the lack of a pressure cooking mode.
If you don’t mind pressure cooking, the Speedi is the best value for the money. The Speedi does essentially the same thing as the Foodi and even offers its own Speedi Meals setting, so it’s definitely not a downgrade. Plus, the difference in capacity is only slight, making the Speedi a better choice if price is more important to you.
As the name suggests, Foodi has 11 unique cooking functions. These functions are divided into three modes, which you can easily switch between using SmartLid:
Air frying mode: air frying, grill, bake, sauté, steam cooking, slow cooking, dehydration and yogurt. Pressure cooking mode: combination pressure cooking. Steam mode: steam frying and steam baking.
In our testing, the pressure cooking and steaming functions performed admirably, producing tender meat, beans, rice, and vegetables. Steaming is also fast and efficient, although the performance of regular air frying is average compared to other Ninja units. But overall, performance across all settings is very good, especially considering the vast number of units available.
Equally impressive, the Speedi has 10 cooking settings and two modes that you can quickly switch between using the SmartSwitch on the lid:
Speed Cook Modes: Speed Cook, Steam Fry, Steam Bake and Steam Roast/Stove Modes: Air Fry, Grill, Bake/Roast, Dehydrate, Grill/Roast and Slow Cook.
The Speedi’s selling point is its Speedi Meals function. This combines steaming in the bottom pan with air frying on top, allowing you to cook a complete meal in minutes. Our reviewer cooked 200g (uncooked) rice, vegetables and two chicken breasts at 180°C for 15 minutes (excluding three minutes of steaming), and the results were impressive.
As for other functions, both the frying and steaming modes produced excellent homemade fries in our tests, but we think the grill mode could be better.
Both of these multicookers have a lot going for them: the Foodi is versatile and stable in most conditions. However, the Speedi is equally impressive, with 10 features, including best-in-class air frying and a 15-minute Speedi Meals feature. Ultimately, the winner will depend on whether you value pressure cooking or quick meal prep.
In terms of looks and functionality, the Foodi and Speedi have a lot to offer. The Foodi is cylindrical, made of metal and black plastic parts, and features a clear digital display. The non-stick coating on the air fryer basket and bowl is dishwasher safe. This model also features a convenient SmartLid lid, which improves on its predecessor’s cumbersome multi-lid design, as a single lid can adapt to three cooking modes by changing the lid’s position.
The main drawback of the device is its size (35 x 36 x 33 cm in width and height) and weight (10.9 kg), but fortunately its sleek design compensates for the fixed space it necessarily takes up on the counter.
The Speedi workbench has compact dimensions of 33 x 35 x 31 cm (aspect ratio) and weighs only 6.5 kg. Due to its low height and cubic shape, it can be easily stored on busy kitchen surfaces when not in use. The square design also makes the Speedi more flexible, as it is easier to fit certain foods in compared to the round design of the Foodi. Although it technically has a smaller capacity, due to its shape, the Speedi is large enough to fit dishes like lasagne. Another handy feature of the Speedi design is the adjustable grill plate, which effectively divides the pan in half, creating a separate air frying zone on top and a steaming zone on the bottom.
If you prefer a metal look, you might be put off by the Speedi’s heavy plastic design, but we prefer its cool blue color. Like the Foodi, the Speedi has a digital display, is dishwasher safe, has non-stick accessories, and the SmartSwitch eliminates the need for multiple lids.
In terms of design features, the Foodi and Speedi are almost identical. However, the Speedi is slightly better in terms of design, as it is smaller, has more attractive colors and a square design.
When you unpack the Foodi, you’ll find a 6-quart pot, an air fryer basket, a reversible rack, and helpful instructions and a recipe booklet. The reversible rack is designed to hold proteins you want to fry on top and grains, vegetables, or sauces on the bottom for steaming.
While this is a great way to stack different foods in the pan, in our testing it was difficult to fit more than two large pieces of salmon. The spacing between the racks also means that if you use it to store smaller items, they may fall to the bottom.
Accessories included with the Speedi include an adjustable baking pan with silicone feet that allow the pan to be separated from the 5.7-quart square saucepan. You also get instructions and a recipe booklet. For classic air frying and baking, you’ll need to keep the pan on the bottom, but for a combination setup, extend the feet so the pan rests on a ledge about halfway up the pan, leaving the bottom half for steaming.
Like reversible grills, adjustable grills have their drawbacks. If you cook food in a pan, you won’t be able to see or inspect the food unless you remove the pan first, which is a pretty awkward task in itself.
If you like the ability to control your food, you might also want to consider a multi-purpose air fryer like the Instant Vortex Plus Dual Drawer, which has a clear basket window.
Both come with detailed instructions, recipe guides, and all the necessary accessories. Unfortunately, neither the Foodi nor the Speedi come with a digital temperature probe. For this reason, you should consider the Foodi MAX 15-in-1 SmartLid Multicooker. When it comes to the reversible racks and adjustable pans, we see both benefits and problems with both features, so it has to be a tie in this category.
The Ninja Speedi dominates this multicooker war and wins the most. Both units offer plenty of features, are nicely designed, and come with handy accessories. However, while the Foodi has great pressure cooking capabilities, the Speedi can cook a full meal in 15 minutes, which may be better suited for everyday cooking depending on your needs.
The Speedi is also cheaper but still packed with useful features, has a smaller footprint, more power, and all the standard Ninja features we love, like dishwasher-safe accessories and easy-to-use cooking guides.
It doesn’t have the ability to pressure cook or make yogurt, so if those features are important to you, you may still want to consider the Ninja Foodi 11-in-1 or even the Ninja Foodi MAX 15-in-1. However, the Ninja Speedi’s many features and excellent cooking results will appeal to most people.
Post time: Dec-13-2024