Can you cook Salmon & Veggies together in air fryer

It can be tricky to cook several food items at a time but it will be possible if your choice of salmon fillet is thin, and where the vegetables can sit either side.

You can air fry a small salmon fillet together with your choice of vegetables at 355°f / 180°C, with 40 minutes of cooking time. You must begin air frying the vegetables early on, then add the salmon halfway. Situate the uncovered fillet skin-side up, with the veggies wrapped in loose foil parcels.

Air fryers cook all kinds of fish very well with no exception of a salmon. Salmon, skinless or skin-on, will air fry to a succulent centre and a crispy skin if its present.

Its all about timing when it comes to cooking multiple food items together in an air fryer, of which you must know veggies will need an extended time.

And so you will begin air frying any mix of fresh or frozen vegetables in the air fryer - preferably with vegetables wrapped in foil to steam with a tablespoon of water - and then the salmon fillet will be added when there's 13-15 minutes left to go on the time.

Salmon can be air fried wrapped in foil but on this occasion I chose to closely follow the oven cooking instructions, as its my first time air frying a salmon fillet.

I am pleased to say the salmon air fried extremely well and produced a juicy centre.

Vegetables however were still far to hard of which the 18 minute cooking time become a full 40 minutes.

Which means the vegetables had to be air fried for the full 40 minutes, while the salmon fillet was added with 15 minutes to time.

Air fry the salmon skin-side facing up while the vegetables steam inside foil parcels.

When space is limited, you can either reduce the weight of the vegetables used, or indeed reduce your choice of veggies so salmon and vegetables can cook together on the bottom of your air fryer basket.

On this day, I air fried a TESCO Boneless Salmon Fillet, which weighed 130g.

Doable in sizeable air fryer

Of course you can cook salmon and veggies together in an air fryer but it will depend on how big your air fryer is.

I am lucky enough to use an air fryer that has a substantial width and depth, where I can air fry a big portion of vegetables along with a salmon fillet that can fit in between.

You may not have the space in the bottom of your air fryer basket to cook a salmon fillet with two types of vegetables; which is fine because you can simply reduce the number of vegetables used - with an option to air fry just one vegetable.

Be sure you can cook your particular salmon fillet in your air fryer by making sure the dimensions of the basket matches that of the fillet.

With space available on one side or the other, this is where you will air fry your vegetables.

I used quite a small boneless salmon fillet - approximately 130g - which made it easy on me; if the fillet was any wider then I would of had to drastically reduce the portion of vegetables.

Prepare Salmon & Veggies

Be sure salmon has sat out of the fridge for a minimum of 15 minutes to reach room temperature, as the cooking time would be effected if you didn't.

• STEP 1: Preheat air fryer for 5 mins. - Let's get off to a quick start by preheating the air fryer for 5 minutes maximum
• STEP 2: Wrap Potatoes, Broccoli loosely in separate foil parcels - You'll be steaming the vegetables so make it a loose wrap using a big sheet if foil

• STEP 3: Add 2 tablespoons of water to each parcel - To steam the parcels in their foil wraps its vital you add water to produce steam inside the sealed parcels
• STEP 4: Add parcels to basket before closing - When adding foil parcels to basket, make sure the wrap doesn't unravel in the process

NOTE: Seal vegetables in big sheet of foil to ensure a loose parcel can be made to allow steam to flow around inside.

How to air fry all together

Vegetables and salmon especially won't need to be flipped halfway, which is just as well, because the salmon fillets will absolutely split apart if you tried.

• STEP 1: Set temp to 355°f / 180°C: time to 40 Mins. - Medium heat will be needed to ensure salmon doesn't quickly dry out
• STEP 2: Begin air frying Veggies only - Give the vegetable a long head start in the air fryer, with 25 minutes needed before adding fillets

• STEP 3: Introduce Salmon fillets - Add Salmon fillets skin-side up on Parchment Paper with 15 minutes left on the time
• STEP 4: Decanter Salmon with spatula to serve - Little difficulty in removing the salmon fillet, thus a spatula and fork will work well together to decanter fillet

NOTE: Vegetables may need additional 5-10 minutes so check for doneness before adding salmon

Roast vegetables with NO foil wrap

Here I demonstrated how to cook salmon and veggies together in an air fryer; both types of veggies were wrapped in foil while the salmon was uncovered.

Why I choose to air fry the salmon uncovered, instead roasting, was because I simply followed the oven cooking instructions on the back of my salmon fillet packaging - which recommended to air fry skin facing upwards with no foil wrap.

With the broccoli and small baking potatoes I choose to steam them in a foil wrap so the texture was soft in both the peel and potato centre.

Soft baked potatoes compliment a salmon dinner as oppose to crispy hard skins.

With all that, I think next time I would like to air fry both vegetables out of the foil wrap and roast them both directly in the air fryer instead.

How you would do that is add broccoli and these small potatoes into a bowl and mix thoroughly in two tablespoons of olive oil.

Oil will slow the browning of roasted vegetables while providing a nice texture. Don't forget to add a touch of salt and pepper to the bowl before adding vegetables uncovered in the air fryer basket, to roast for 20-25 minutes.

Similar potatoes you can think about air frying are the canned potato kind which will be decanted - then wrapped in foil to air fry with no change - oppose to roasted potatoes which produce a crispy skin yet sometimes a dry texture.

Steam Salmon fillet in foil wrap

Not so much steam because you really aren't adding enough water to the foil wrap to make the steam last, but you can cook salmon in a foil parcel to avoid roasting.

Why you would do this is to retain all the juices which comes out of a salmon when roasting in the open.

Cooking a salmon in a loose foil wrap will ensure the salmon fillet will retain its succulents, while at the same time there's no possible way of drying out the salmon as it won't be exposed to the heating element situated above.

No need to oil the salmon prior to wrapping in the foil parcel but you will want to position the salmon skin-side facing upwards.

Steaming a salmon fillet as oppose to roasting one in an air fryer will still need to air fry for approximately 15 minutes.

What can go wrong

As it happens a lot can go wrong when air frying salmon and vegetables together; among them you may find there's no space in between the two vegetable parcels - and that is especially true when air frying two salmon fillets.

Luckily for me, my air fryer basket was wide enough - 22cm by 23 cm - which was big enough to sit a broccoli and potato parcel along with the salmon fillet in a row.

Do plan ahead when it comes to finding out whether your basket will fit your salmon and veggies, because then you'll have no surprises when it comes to adding the salmon.

Remember, the salmon fillet is added later on into air frying as the veggies are given a long head start.

What else can go wrong when air fryer veggies, even with a long 25 minute head start, is that the broccoli especially can still be too firm.

DISCLAIMER: In doing this demonstration, I had to add the vegetables back into the basket - with the salmon wrapped loosely in foil to keep warm - because they weren't done enough, and were too hard to bite in to.

Summary

You can cook salmon and any kind of vegetables at the same time in an air fryer of which you will rely on how much space you have to spare inside your air fryer basket.

Here I cooked a thin 130g salmon fillet which was wedged in between two foil parcels filled with a small batch of broccoli florets and potatoes.

I may of cooked three items all at the same time but in reality each food item was small.

I found the vegetables needed a lot more time to cook than the salmon, so I gave both broccoli and small potatoes a 25 minutes head start; with only 15 minutes to go, I added the salmon to the air fryer basket.

Check if your salmon will fit in your basket first thing then measure out a portion of all the vegetables you wish to air fry with the salmon, to ensure there's no compatibility issues when its finally time to add the salmon along side the veggies.

I steamed the vegetables in a loose foil wrap while the salmon fillet was cooked on top of parchment paper, with the skin-side facing upwards.

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