I’ll put my hands up; I was one of the air fryer sceptics. 

Despite knowing how much my friends and family members loved theirs, I always thought that because I rarely use an oven, I’d never have much use for the device. 

Then, I got my hands on one. It took a single meal to convert me.

I love BBC Good Food’s tuna melt wedges, which deliver the crispy, cheesy, salty taste of the classic sandwich on a bed of wedges. 

So, I thought I’d try the wallet-friendly dish in my new device ― and was delighted by the results. 

The ingredients are pretty basic

All you need to get going is roughly 250g of potato per person (more than the official recipe recommends, but it’s what I need), two heaped spoons of mayo (I used low-fat, and it was fine), 25g each of cheese, and a drained can of tune each (again, the original recipe halved that, but I love my protein).

The original recipe recommended frozen potato wedges, but chopping up a floury spud (like Maris Piper, King Edwards, or even Rooster) worked great.

My version involved about 45p worth of Maris Piper potatoes, roughly 20p of low-fat mayo, 90-ish p of cheddar, and £1.60 of tuna fed two. 

That puts it at about £1.58 per person.

The steps are simple: cover the wedged potatoes in salt and pepper and put them in the air fryer at 200°C for 30 minutes, shaking every 10 mins. 

Once they seem almost done, I take them out and put them in an air fryer liner so none of the tuna mix can leak.

Then, mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl with some salt, pepper, and lemon juice if you have it, place it on top of the wedges, and leave it in there for a further 10 minutes until bubbling, golden-brown, and crispy.

And?

Given that I completely forgot to use the onions the recipe recommended, swapped out regular mayo for low-fat, and used a completely different device, I was amazed by how well it turned out. 

The tuna layer became crunchy at the top, yielding to a soft, slightly gooey layer underneath; the spuds were fluffy and golden-brown. 

It’s since made its way into my regular roster. I cook it about twice a week, especially on weeknights.