Jamie Oliver Baked Beans

Jamie Oliver’s giant baked beans are butter beans baked in a tomato sauce with mini sausage meatballs and feta, a Greek-inspired one-pan dinner. It’s a five-ingredient dish that serves 6 in 50 minutes.

In 5 Ingredients Mediterranean (2023) he traces it to a mezze he ate in Thessaloniki, reworked into something for the family table. Creamy giant butter beans stand in for baked beans, with feta melting into the sauce and more scattered on top for tang.

The shortcut that makes it fun is the meatballs. You squeeze spicy sausagemeat straight out of the skins into rough 3cm balls, so there’s no mince to season or bind. The sausage is already seasoned, so you get flavour-packed meatballs in minutes.

Jamie Oliver Baked Beans

Recipe by Pinch Perfect

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Dinner, LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

571

kcal

Total time

50

minutes

Jamie’s five-ingredient one-pan dinner from 5 Ingredients Mediterranean: giant butter beans baked in tomato sauce with squeezed-from-the-skin sausage meatballs and two hits of feta. Serves six.

Ingredients

• 6 spicy higher-welfare pork sausages or veggie alternative (400g total)

• 320g frozen chopped mixed onion, carrot and celery

• 1 x 700g jar of giant butter beans, or 2 x 400g tins of butter beans

• 2 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes

• 200g feta cheese

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Directions

• Brown the meatballs:Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Put a large non-stick ovenproof frying pan on medium heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Squeeze the sausagemeat out of the skins into rustic 3cm balls, add to the pan, brown all over for 3 minutes, then remove to a plate.
• Build the sauce:Add the frozen mixed veg to the pan and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Tip in the beans, juices and all, then scrunch in the tomatoes through clean hands. Season with black pepper and bring to the boil.
• Add the feta:Finely break up and stir half the feta through the sauce, dot the meatballs back in, then coarsely break the rest of the feta into chunks and scatter on top.
• Bake:Bake for 25 minutes, until golden, thick and bubbling. Serve as is, or with a hunk of fresh bread for dunking.

FAQs

Why squeeze the sausagemeat out instead of using mince?

It’s the clever shortcut at the heart of the dish. Good sausages are already seasoned and bound, so squeezing the meat from the skins into little balls gives you flavour-packed meatballs with no mince to season, no egg or breadcrumb to bind, and no mixing. It takes minutes.

Use spicy sausages for the best result, since their seasoning carries the whole dish. Pinch off small amounts and roll rough 3cm balls, keeping them rustic rather than perfect. Browning them first builds flavour and stops them falling apart in the sauce, so don’t skip that step.

Can I make it vegetarian?

Yes, easily. Swap the pork sausages for a good veggie or plant-based sausage, squeezed and rolled the same way, and the dish works just as well. Many meat-free sausages are well seasoned, so you keep that shortcut flavour.

Feta is vegetarian-friendly if you choose one made with vegetarian rennet, worth checking the label. For a fully plant-based version, use a vegan feta-style cheese and vegan sausages. The beans, tomatoes and veg base is naturally meat-free, so it’s a simple set of swaps.

What beans should I use?

Giant butter beans are the star, prized for their creamy, almost fluffy texture, and a 700g jar of them is ideal. Jars tend to hold plumper, softer beans than tins, but two 400g tins of butter beans work fine as the recipe says.

Crucially, tip them in with their juices, not drained, because that starchy liquid helps thicken the sauce as it bakes. If you can’t find butter beans, cannellini or other white beans stand in, though you lose a little of the signature creaminess. This is the same bean Jamie uses in his harissa butter beans.

Why scrunch the tomatoes by hand?

Scrunching whole plum tomatoes through clean hands breaks them into a rustic, uneven texture that’s better than a smooth passata here. You get some pulpy bits and some chunkier pieces, which gives the finished sauce more character and body.

Whole plum tomatoes are also usually better quality than pre-chopped tins, with sweeter, riper fruit. If you’d rather not use your hands, a quick mash with a potato masher does the same job. Either way, use whole plum tomatoes rather than chopped for the best flavour.

Why add the feta in two stages?

It’s a neat trick for two textures from one cheese. Half the feta is finely broken and stirred through the sauce, where it melts in and makes the whole thing creamier and tangier, seasoning the beans from within. The other half goes on top in chunks.

Those chunks bake into golden, slightly crisped pockets of salty cheese on the surface, giving contrast against the soft beans and sauce. So you get feta melted through and feta as a topping in the same dish. Break the top pieces coarsely so they hold their shape.

What do I serve with it, and does it keep?

Jamie loves it as it is, with a hunk of fresh bread for dunking and mopping up the sauce, which is really all it needs. A crisp green salad on the side turns it into a fuller meal. It’s proper comfort food straight from the pan.

It keeps and reheats brilliantly, and the flavour deepens overnight, so it’s a good make-ahead or batch dish. Loosen with a splash of water when you reheat, as the beans drink up the sauce. There’s more one-pan inspiration on the Jamie Oliver recipes page.