Best Vegetable Brushes For Air Fryer Foods

Here, we review the best vegetable brushes for air fryer foods that we’ve found so far.

If your goal is to make healthier foods with your air fryer, there is no way around having a good vegetable brush on hand.

The Best Vegetable Brushes At A Glimpse:

What Is A Vegetable Brush?

Simply put, a vegetable brush is a brush you keep in your kitchen, specifically for cleaning fruits and vegetables. It’s typically a small, hand-held brush with a smaller bristle surface. The bristles have a small amount of give, but are strong enough to handle hard vegetables like potatoes.

Vegetable brushes are kept for this singular purpose. They should not be used to clean or scrub your dishes, due to possible transfer of bacteria.

Do You Need A Vegetable Brush?

For vegetables you want to eat with their skin on, you’ll want to clean the skin first. Root vegetables are notorious for holding onto dirt. They require a good scrubbing if you aren’t going to peel them.

For example, potatoes. It’s often better or easier to leave the skin on for air frying.

What Type Of Vegetables Would You Use A Vegetable Brush On?

Vegetable brushes are typically used on any fruit of vegetable with some hardiness to it. You would never use a vegetable brush on a soft tomato because it would break through the skin. So what air fryer friendly foods do you typically used a vegetable brush for?

They are most often used for root vegetables. Vegetables that need to literally have the dirt washed off of them. Or in this case, scrubbed off of them.

• Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Turnips
• Rutabagas

That being said, if you plan on peeling any of your vegetables, then scrubbing them is pointless unless they have a lot of dirt on them that could move around with the peeler.

How Do You Use A Vegetable Brush?

Typically, you would use a vegetable brush with running water so that the water carries away any dirt you scrub off your vegetable. But you can also scrub in a small tub of water and then give it a quick rinse after to conserve water.

How Do You Clean A Vegetable Brush?

The majority of vegetable brushes are dishwasher friendly. However, for those few that aren’t (typically with a wooden handle), you can soak just the brush portion in soapy water overnight. The important part is making sure your brush dries completely after washing.

What Makes A Good Vegetable Brush?

So let’s dive into what makes a great vegetable brush.

The truth is, you could easily pick up a cheap vegetable brush at the dollar store. So what are the reasons you may want to spend a little more for a better quality brush?

• Bristles – On cheaper brushes, the bristles tend to break down faster.
• Grip – Cheaper brushes are not very ergonomic. That may seem like a silly consideration until you find yourself having to clean pounds of potatoes or carrots at a time.

What Is The Best Vegetable Brush?

Let’s look at each of the above mentioned brushes and what their plusses and minuses are.

Pluses

• Cleans all produce, even softer produce such as zucchini.
• Comfortable handle for easy grip.
• Recycled and plant fiber bristles.
• Cleaning: Hand wash, air-dry completely.
• Hanging: Yes

Minuses

• This brush is on the smaller side. So grip may or may not be comfortable, depending on the size of your hands.
• The bristles are quite hard, which is great for harder vegetables, but it can also scrape away some of the skin of whatever vegetable you are cleaning. So gentle brushing is kind of a requirement with this one.

Pluses

• This brush has nylon bristles.
• Non-slip grip.
• Cleaning: Dishwasher safe

Minuses

• Does not hang for drying.
• Extra firm bristles. So gentle scrubbing is key for some fruits and veggies.

Pluses

• Nylon bristles
• Soft(er) bristles
• Ergonomic handle
• Hanging: Yes
• Cleaning: Dishwasher safe

Minuses

• The bristles tend to be a bit softer, but still too hard for soft veggies like mushrooms.

Should You Use Produce Wash?

While many people simply scrub their veggies with a vegetable brush and call it a day, its never a bad idea to get some produce wash on there as well.

Produce wash is great for any type of produce, but particularly greens like lettuce and herbs. It’s incredible how much dirt comes off of greens!

But with harder produce, you might think it’s unnecessary to use produce wash. And as a home chef for the past 11 years, here’s what I’ve found.

Produce wash is definitely a good thing to use on harder produce. However….

Don’t use it until you are ready to cook your harder veggies. Using a produce wash gets rid of pesticides and all manner of debris. But I find that produce lasts longer if you don’t wash it before storing it.

This is the produce wash we use around here, and we love it!