Air fryer halloumi stir fry

I love a stir fry, especially if I’m not a fan of what the rest of the house are eating (salmon). This air fryer halloumi stir fry was delicious and so easy to make. I think I’ll be using the air fryer in future to make stir fries when I’m trying to multi task.

Why stir fry in the air fryer

Ok, so I admit, it involves less washing up doing a stir fry in a wok or frying pan.  It’s also probably faster. But the downside is having to stand there and toss the veg, mix it around on the go. 

With an air fryer stir fry, I can pretty much just leave the protein base and the veg in the air fryer to cook while I do other things. Like fold and hang washing. Or sort the other meal I’m cooking for dinner.

What ingredients to add

The great thing about stir fries is you can add whatever veg or protein you prefer.  I’m quite often lazy and just buy a stir fry mix of vegetables. Otherwise I usually chop up white cabbage, onion, baby corn, pepper, carrots. As long as you cut the veg into similar size strips it’ll work well.  

Look out for supermarket meal deals for noodles, sauce and veg packs as these can work out relatively cheap. 

For the air fryer you probably want to avoid really light leafy veg because they can burn and turn bitter. Instead stick with the stalks or other veg.

Noodles or rice

For this stir fry I used noodles. For rice I’d stick with doing that in the microwave but I have seen rice in some air fryer recipes. I just prefer my rice done separately rather than mixed in.

I used egg noodles. It’s easier and saves time to use chilled noodles that are straight to wok style because they can go straight into the airfryer.  As I only had dry noodles, I put them in boiling water in a jug for 5 minutes before they were rehydrated and fine to add to the air fryer.

Cooking the protein

Depending on what protein you want to add, you may need to time things differently or cook it in a different drawer.

For the halloumi I cooked it in drawer 2 of my Ninja dual on the crisper plate so it was nice and crispy. Then I could just top the stir fry with it or mix it in at the last stages of cooking.  If you’ve only got a single drawer air fryer, then cook the halloumi first, remove it to cook the veg, then add the halloumi again to reheat it mixed into the veg mix.

If I was adding chicken strips, I’d likely cooking those for a bit first in the air fryer drawer, then add the veg to it. This means only one thing to wash up rather than 2 drawers. Bonus. For prawns add those after the veg are started off so they don’t get overdone.

Tips for air fryer stir fries

Something I quite often do with stir fries is use leftover roast chicken pieces. Or strips of leftover roast beef or pork. With that, I’d just add the meat after a few minutes of the veg being in to heat it through. You do need to make sure it’s hot before eating. 

My final tip is oil.  You will need a bit of oil when cooking the stir fry.  You can just spray the oil over the veg but I just tipped some in and shook the veg to make sure it was spread over it.

I keep forgetting to buy a spray bottle to put my oil in, so for the halloumi I just used a silicon pastry brush to sweep a little oil on that. But whatever you prefer will work.

I was going for a quick meal so used a sauce pouch – this time it was chow mein sauce. You could just use soy sauce, or make your own from scratch. But if you’re wanting fast convenient meals, then a shop bought sauce will do fine.

Don’t forget all air fryers are different. I have a Ninja so don’t have to preheat mine. If yours requires that, then preheat as required (or extend the cooking time). Do keep checking the veg and halloumi as it’s cooking to avoid it getting too crispy. If it is, you might want to turn down the temperature or spray a bit more oil on.  Make sure you flip the halloumi halfway through, 

Find the recipe and method below for making air fryer halloumi stir fry.

Print

Air fryer halloumi stir fry

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Keyword air fryer

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 13 minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

• 1 bag stir fry veg (or thinly slice veg of your choice to approx 350g)
• 2 portions fresh noodles 2 nests of dry egg noodles
• ½ to ¾ block halloumi sliced and dried on kitchen towel
• 1 pouch stir fry sauce (or soy sauce)
• oil suitable for air fryers (I use light or standard olive oil, or you can use vegetable or rapeseed oil).

Instructions

1. If using dry noodles, boil the kettle and pour the boiling water over the noodles in a jug for 5 minutes.

2. Spray or brush the halloumi with oil, put into drawer 2 on the crisper tray, and air fry at 190 for 8 minutes. Check halfway through and turn over.

3. Remove the crisper tray from the other drawer, add the veg and either spray with oil, or drizzle some in and shake to ensure it’s coated. Air fry at 190C for 5 minutes, checking it regularly.

4. Once the noodles are soaked and pliable, drain and add those into the veg drawer. Then add the sauce and mix all around.

5. Air fry for another 3-4 minutes.

6. At the same time check the halloumi. If it’s not as crispy as you like it, max crisp it for a couple of minutes at 210C.

7. Serve the veg and noodles in bowls with the halloumi on top

Have you tried stir fries in the air fryer before?

Try my other air fryer recipes.