It can be slightly daunting when you prise open a new kitchen gadget and are confronted with a collection of strange and alien components and parts, at least half of which you probably have never seen before. ‘What does this do? Where does this go? How on earth does that fit in there?’
The majority of Ninja Foodi components are dishwasher safe, but not the whole unit. The inside cooking pot, reversible rack, diffuser, basket, and silicone ring are all perfectly safe to clean in a dishwasher. Neither the base or any other components are dishwasher safe.
These are questions we all ask ourselves during the short period of buyer’s shock when we start to question what on earth we have gotten ourselves into. Then we hit ourselves with the most troubling question: ‘how the heck am I supposed to clean that?’
The Ninja Foodi is a complicated gadget at first glance, and you may be asking yourself that very question. To be honest it is exceptionally simple to clean, even by hand. But let’s face it, what we all really want to know is whether it is dishwasher safe, and if so which parts can be cleaned in a dishwasher?
Read on to discover whether the Ninja Foodi is dishwasher safe, and which bits are dishwasher safe in particular. After all, the difference between an appliance being dishwasher safe or not is the difference between said appliance being a time-saver or a time-sink.
What Is A Ninja Foodi?
The Ninja Foodi is what is known as a multi-cooker. It combines three highly popular methods of cooking in a single device; it is a pressure cooker, slow cooker, and air fryer all at the same time.
A major part of the Ninja Foodie hype is its TenderCrisp party trick. The appliance slow cooks your food first and then air frys it for a crispy finish. This allows you to cook food that is soft and tender on the inside with a crispy surface, just like it is in a restaurant.
This is actually fairly difficult to achieve without dedicated devices, so having the ability to do so with one appliance is a huge bonus.
The slow cooker gives you more control over the cooking process than most dedicated slow cooker devices alone. You can control the temperature (with high and low settings, which is all you really need for slow cooking) and time. Roast potatoes, halloumi, chicken and beef are all very simple to perfect with the slow cooker.
It also allows you to steam fish and vegetables, as well as to saute onions. The device is so versatile it is even fairly easy to make cakes with it! By using the reversible rack you can easily cook more than one thing at a time. This makes cooking a main meal and a side at the same time both possible and easy. The reversible rack is perfect for steaming meat and vegetables.
The pressure cooker function works exactly the same way that a dedicated pressure cooker does. It evenly cooks meat and vegetables, and makes a very good job of roasting food. It can take as little as 20 minutes to perfectly cook chicken breasts, and most vegetables are ready in less than five minutes.
Impressively, the pressure cooker can even boil up to 12 eggs in one go. Not only that, such staples as rice, potatoes and beans are quick and easy to cook using the Ninja Foodi pressure cooker.
Air fryers are fantastic devices that use a tiny amount of oil to fry many different types of food, and the air fryer function of the Ninja Foodi is no different. The air fryer is perfect for making almost guilt-free chips, chicken wings, onion rings, casseroles and pizza to name just a few of its offerings.
Of course slow cookers, pressure cookers and air fryers are not new inventions, and there are many versions of each on the market. Where the Ninja Foodi shines is in its ability to perform all three functions in one device, a truly remarkable feat.
That, and its TenderCrisp function set it apart as a device truly in its own category. It is arguably one of the most efficient ways of crispening food, compared to other manual methods.
Is The Ninja Foodi Dishwasher Safe?
Most of the component parts that make up the Ninja Foodi are dishwasher safe, but not all.
The next section will go into the parts that can be cleaned in a dishwasher, but before that please make a note of the following: under no circumstances should you ever try to clean the base of the product (basically the outside bit that holds it all together), the crisping lid and heat shield, and the pressure cooking lid.
What Parts Of The Ninja Foodi Is Dishwasher Safe?
Apart from the three main components mentioned above, everything else on the Ninja Foodi can be cleaned in a dishwasher, and it is perfectly safe to do so. If you don’t have a dishwasher there is no need to worry; all of the components can be washed with warm soapy water by hand.
The following components are perfectly dishwasher safe:
Internal Cooking Pot
The internal cooking pot is ceramic coated, making it really simple to clean and dishwasher safe. The smooth surface makes it really easy to clean, and it doesn’t take up too much space in a dishwasher, meaning it can be cleaned as part of a general dishwashing cycle rather than having to be separately cleaned.
Crisper Basket and Rack
The crisper basket is a really simple component that is dishwasher safe. The crisper basket, rack, or tray depending on how you choose to describe it, is a flat metal disk with ventilation holes in the base, surrounded by a low rim. It is ceramic coated, and really easy to clean.
The crisper basket is quite thin but with a fairly wide diameter, meaning it doesn’t take up too much space when stood up in a dishwasher.
Reversible Rack
The reversible rack is a circular rack with two layers that can be detached and, as the name implies, reversed. The stainless steel rack is super easy to clean, and is also dishwasher safe.
While your dishwasher is unlikely to have any trouble cleaning the rack, if you do encounter problems with residue being left on the bars a good tip is to coat them with cooking oil spray before use to make it harder for food to stick to them.
Detachable Diffuser
The detachable diffuser is a simple stand that raises the cook and crisp basket off the base of the unit to improve airflow and even out the cooking and crisping process. It is quite a small stainless steel stand, similar to a pot stand, and is completely dishwasher safe.
The diffuser doesn’t tend to get too filthy, as it sits below the basket, but it should still be cleaned regularly.
Silicone Ring
The silicone ring encircles the glass lid to form a tight seal with the pot and base unit. These seals are prone to collecting moisture, and if left uncleaned for a short period of time can become a bacteria hotspot. Luckily it is detachable and completely dishwasher safe.
Hi all! I’m Cora Benson, and I’ve been blogging about food, recipes and things that happen in my kitchen since 2019.