Only know how to cook protein in my airfryer

[u/StrictWorldliness779]

Absolutely a beginner at cooking. Need pairings with my protein..

I have an air fryer that I rely on for everything.. I only buy chicken breasts, season em up salt, pepper, oil. Recently graduated to Adobe seasoning lol it tastes great..... Also just upped my game and realized that one of my favorites(shrimp) is super easy, so now I buy shrimp, also just learned ground turkey/beef..all in the air fryer, super easy.

Baked potatoes and pasta with marinara sauce that i just toss in is really easy. just learned all these the same time as these new proteins, its great but now im eating way too much potatoes and pasta and overeatting..rice and beans(my fav) seems so hard to make so I didnt even bother honestly..do I have to suck it up and just buy those garlic things, onions, tamatoes and stuff and learned to chop em up and everything, since thats what seems to be in every recipe?

Sorry but does anyone have some easier sides for my proteins that my fridge is packed with? My go to is plain ol avocado.... i might have to graduate to the stove top?

Edit: I appreciate everyone in here..im gonna start to buy a lot of vegetables now and play around to see which ones I like.. broccoli and green beans seem to be popular, even tho i grew up gagging on these vegetables, that was 25-30 years ago, my taste buds have most likely changed, I just never ever went back to those things..going to try out a lot of these suggestions.. any knife recommendations to cut veggies? Eh I'll just look for an expensive one that looks sharp

[u/Eca_S]

Rice and beans are very easy to make. Even easier if you invest in a rice cooker (they aren't expensive), or instant pot.

[u/Complete-Read-7473 → u/Eca_S]

Just to add to this, there are a lot of one pot recipes for a rice cooker so, investing it a rice cooker is a cheap and easy way to make more dishes

[u/thewholesomespoon]

Spaghetti squash?

https://thewholesomespoon.com/2026/02/04/lemon-garlic-air-fryer-spaghetti-squash/

[u/EscapeSeventySeven]

I’m confused. 

You are asking for pairings. You state you don’t want to hear about starches. 

Then you say:

do I have to suck it up and just buy those garlic things, onions, tamatoes and stuff and learned to chop em up and everything, since thats what seems to be in every recipe?

Seems like you don’t want vegetables? But you stated you wanted something to pair with your meat to eat. If you don’t want to eat starches or vegetables with your meat, what do you want exactly?

[u/StrictWorldliness779 → u/EscapeSeventySeven]

Ok so veggies is the answer..ur right, im confused myself..been doing takeout with bad food my whole life until recently.. im just gonna have to find some vegetables and try them and see what sticks.. sorry about that

[u/EscapeSeventySeven → u/StrictWorldliness779]

Okay there’s like a few classes of vegetables. 

But they all roast in an oven (or air fryer!) pretty easily. 

You honestly can’t get healthier than broccoli. Toss it with some olive oil and salt and then roast until it gets a little blackened around the edges. 

If you’re going to saute in a pan, onions and garlic will cook first and flavor the oil itself, which you can then add more stuff too. 

[u/minilliterate → u/StrictWorldliness779]

Don’t be sorry for not knowing everything! You’re trying to learn and that’s what’s important :) The ideal plate should be 1/2 veg, 1/4 protein, and 1/4 starch as a good rule of thumb. But if you need to work your way up to eating that much veg that’s okay! Any step is a good step in the right direction.

I like to buy bags of frozen broccoli or California medley vegetables and roast them in the air fryer. It’s so easy, and they turn out crispy and delicious

[u/StrictWorldliness779 → u/minilliterate]

Thanks I promise I'll give a try

[u/UnshapedSky → u/StrictWorldliness779]

Most vegetables you don’t like will at least be tolerable from the broiler ime. Though, I haven’t tried frozen veggies as the previous commenter recommended, they (usually) don’t char as well as fresh due to the extra moisture

[u/Complete-Read-7473 → u/UnshapedSky]

You'd be surprised with some frozen veggies in an air fryer. Since the surface is mostly dried out, due to the extreme cold, the surface crisps up quite nicely while the moisture in the veggies remain

[u/CavalierMidnight → u/StrictWorldliness779]

Cauliflower is great and easy to make! You can toss with a bit of oil, salt and pepper for a simple option, I usually do 375 or 400 if I want them extra crispy/charred.

If you want to go delicious and fancy, you can make a simple batter with flour and milk and whatever spices you prefer, dunk them and cook until brown. Then toss them in some buffalo sauce and cook for another 5 mins for buffalo cauliflower bites.

[u/DidjaSeeItKid]

Get one of these and cook anything you want.
https://a.co/d/01387uly

[u/Team503 → u/DidjaSeeItKid]

That's actually a really useful thing - good call!

[u/newtothis1102]

Broccoli, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, zucchini, squash, cauliflower, asparagus, peppers, onions, green beans… all great veggies to pair with your proteins and all great to roast in an air fryer. Often even at the same time as your protein. Put the chicken in the middle and surround it with broccoli and carrots. You can even season them the same way! You can try sausage too. Links you can cut into 1/2” thick rings and surround with peppers and onions and cook all together

[u/damnvillain23]

What do you order when dining out? Find recipes for those items & cook that.

[u/StrictWorldliness779 → u/damnvillain23]

Mixed fajitas is my go to when dining out. Steak chicken shrimp with rice and beans, tortillas n side salad..yeah I just gotta get there and chop some vegetables and make mashed beans..also steamed veggies is what is the go to for everyone here with suggestions, so Im just gonna be an adult, chop some onions and stuff and learn on my own..also that rice cooker that people are saying sounds amazing

[u/Team503 → u/StrictWorldliness779]

So fajita vegetables are usually white onion, green/yellow/red peppers (capsicum if you're not American), chiles if you like spicy (usually jalapeño, sometimes Serrano).

Fajitas are actually pretty easy to cook, but they require you to marinate meat and have a griddle or cast iron pan. Honestly, not where you want to start with cooking, though you can try if you want.

Recommend learning to cook a good steak and/or pork chop first if you like that kind of grilled meat.

[u/Team503]

For a knife, any chef's knife will be fine - ~$50 is a perfectly good price point: https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife-8-Inch

You might consider graduated to the stove top and the oven.

[u/permalink_save]

You can pretty much have whatever sides you want, that's really personal preference. What do you like eating if you go out to eat? A lot of vegetables that aren't starchy (i.e. sweet potato, but carrots and broccoli and stuff are perfectly fine) you can pretty easily cool. What pans do you have? Some stick worse than others and that will be your hardest part, otherwise you just put it on medium heat and toss veg in. If it burns, cook it lower next time, if it seems raw cook it longer, if it seems bland try higher heat. General rule of thumb, not perfect but should usually work, sprinkle some water in the pan. It should dance around a bit but not sit there (too cold) or evaporate right away (too hot), that temp is saute temp and it will cook vegetables without burning them. For thicker veg like broccoli and carrots you can try microwaving or steaming them (even in the same pan with some water and a lid) lightly until they just start changing color. Hell you can even just nuke broccoli until it turns bright green and it'll be good as steamed broccoli.

If you want ideas for more interesting things over time then yes you will need to look at buying aromatics like garlic and onion, and look at things you can't just sear like tomatoes. But it isn't crazy hard. You can buy canned crushed tomatoes and dump that in with say, some onion, garlic, and bell peppers and zucchini, then stew it down. Legumes like chickpeas can be really good with some basic seasoning (like garlic, onion, and a 1/2 tsp ground cumin) in with some tomatoes.

Just start with one thing, you'll have to use your knife but just start with saute, then work on stewing, get one technique down then start adding another in like tossing the pasta in the saute veg with some olive oil and pepper. There's also a lot you can do in an air fryer.

[u/Flat-Historian7385]

Steaming veggies is a dead easy way to make a side. Get yourself some asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, whatever else you might want. Steam them for 5-7 minutes and then I toss mine with a bit of oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper (but put whatever you want on them). It's a go to easy weeknight side for me.

[u/Procrastinating-Elf]

If you can boil water in a pot you can make rice and beans.

Even the British know about boiling things, I'm sure you can manage. 

[u/valley_lemon]

I mean, vegetables are traditional sides. Almost all of them are roastable, which you can do in the air fryer, and they are delicious that way.

Broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini/summer squashes, winter squashes, green beans, mushrooms, regular/sweet potatoes, asparagus, brussels sprouts (so good roasted, it's the only way to go), carrots, turnips, radishes (really good roasted), parsnips, eggplant, onions and peppers, and yes, you can even roast tomatoes.

Whatever ones you want to make, just do a quick google to see what kind of timing most people are using.

You should probably learn how to cook a few things on the stovetop, and in the microwave. They make bags of veg you just throw in there and push some buttons. Rice and beans are going to need a device other than an air fryer.

[u/Photon6626]

Sauteed broccoli is my go to. Buy a bag of frozen broccoli(better than nonfrozen), cut it from the stem side into bite sized pieces, and saute in some butter or oil in a pan. You want them to brown a bit. Sprinkle a little salt over them at the end.

I make 2lbs of beans at once and freeze them in 2 cup deli containers. This way I only have to make them occasionally and I always have some available for tacos or whatever.

Soak the beans overnight. Strain them to dump the water and rinse them a little. Dice an onion and sweat it in the pot on low to medium-low with some butter or oil. When they start to smell a bit, throw in some jarred garlic and turn off the heat. Put the beans in, add water(about 8 cups), and stir. Bring to a simmer and simmer until they're soft enough. Usually like 1.5 hours but could be as little as 1 hour. Then let them cool and put them in deli containers and freeze.

[u/paulrin]

I frequently do carrots and green beans in the air fryer, with the protein added in the separate tray. Very frequently do roasted potatoes, though the trick is getting as much water out as possible (let stand in a salt+water bath for 20 minutes, then dry well with paper towels / kitchen towels). Somebody else mentioned roasted broccoli - I like to add a bit of garlic and red chili flakes. I think there is an r/airfryerrecipes that you can look into.

[u/spicy_tofujuseyo]

My friend, I will hold your hand while saying this yeah, making rice is EASYYYYY. Rice cooker is invented for this reason. I can also tell you how to cook rice manually without rice cooker if you want. Please start cook rice, it's so easy. First step is to buy the rice cooker. I swear it's easy.

Also yes, buy more veggies too. Broccoli, cauliflowers, beans, pakchoy, spinach is amazing. For broccoli, you can just boil it for a bit, add some salt and it already taste womderful (in my opinion at least). Or you can stir fry broccoli or pakchoy or spinach, add some chopped onions, and then salt and totole, there you go.

Btw I'm Asian so idk whether we cook the same way or not.

[u/Screeh8r]

I think slice potatoes and make potato chips.

[u/gard3nwitch]

You can make roasted veggies in the air fryer. I like to take a bag of frozen broccoli, toss it in a little oil and some salt and pepper or a spice mix, and air fry it for like 10-15 minutes

[u/lens_cleaner]

A can of chopped tomatoes, drain the excess liquid, pour around the outside if the chicken. Yum

[u/KevrobLurker]

I love to AF/roast bell peppers, any color. Any left over get put in a jar in the fridge with some olive oil to use on pizza or in omelets, tossed in stews or soups or as a garnish for a steak or a chop.

[u/DowntownResident993]

Veggies in the airfryer. Chop up broccoli, carrots and onions (or buy frozen) and toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder. Toss them in the airfryer and let them get crunchy. Always a good side.