Jamie Oliver’s 5-Ingredient Dinner Was a Huge Hit With My Family

I’ve never been big on meal-prepping. What I’m in the mood for changes day to day, so cooking ahead doesn’t make sense. Plus frankly, I’m never organized enough to do it.

I do, however, do something I like to call “mom-prepping,” which is getting some of the dinner prep out of the way before the evening rush without actually cooking anything. Let me explain.

If I don’t want to spend an hour prepping and cooking when everyone is home and hangry, I prepare as much as I can and set it on a sheet pan in the fridge until I’m ready to cook in the evening. I learned this in culinary school and from years of being on set for video shoots. It’s called mise en place (which translates from French to “everything in its place”) and without it, I’d feel lost and frazzled. No one wants to be chopping onions with one hand while trying to soothe a whiny toddler with the other.

I have a new favorite recipe that mom-prepping works beautifully for. It’s Jamie Oliver’s genius Giant Baked Beans. The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. Oliver uses five fridge and pantry staples to make a one-pot dish that tastes like it was simmered all day.

How I “Mom-Prep” for This Recipe

My favorite part about this recipe is Oliver’s sausage meatball shortcut. Instead of cooking them in links or chunks, he directs you to remove the sausage from the casing and roll it into tiny meatballs. My kids go crazy for anything miniaturized so as soon as I saw this, I knew the recipe would pass the kid test. Plus, you don’t have to mix up the meatballs from scratch.

I simply pinched a small amount of meat from the casing, rolled it up and before I knew it I had a plate full of meatballs ready to cook in less than five minutes. While this is such a time-saving step, I love doing it ahead so it’s one less germy situation I have to deal with when kids are underfoot.

This recipe calls for giant butter beans, which I drained and rinsed in advance. I love the creaminess of butter beans, but if you can’t find them, any white bean will do. You’ll need two (14.5-ounce) cans.

The same goes for whole peeled tomatoes. I placed them in a bowl and mashed them with a potato masher so that once I was ready to get dinner on the table, I didn’t have to hunt for any kitchen gadgets. For this recipe I used one 28-ounce can of whole peeled plum tomatoes, but crushed tomatoes or even a good-quality marinara sauce will work in a pinch.

As for the mixed celery, onion, and carrot (aka mirepoix), Oliver calls for using frozen. While I’d love to get my hands on a bag of this frozen holy trinity, I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere I shop so I chopped one carrot, one celery stalk, and one small yellow onion.

Last, but certainly not least, I crumbled up some feta and set everything aside on a sheet pan in the fridge until it was almost time for dinner.

How To Cook Jamie Oliver’s Giant Baked Beans

After three or four drives to and from after school activities, it’s dinnertime and finally time to cook this mom-prepped meal.

First, the meatballs are browned in some olive oil, then set aside while the mirepoix sautés. Once the veggies start to soften, you add the beans, tomatoes, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. When this reaches a boil, the meatballs and feta get dotted on top.

The whole skillet heads to the oven to simmer until it is bubbly, about 25 minutes—you get a creamy, thick tomato gravy that is perfectly seasoned thanks to the salty feta and the spice from the sausage.

My kids loved the spice, but if your family likes things more tame, just use a mild sausage. We served this with a lot of toasted baguette the first evening, then served the leftovers over mashed potatoes, which was a huge hit! It’s hard to imagine a more flavorful meal with just five ingredients.