5 Ingredients Mediterranean: Simple Incredible Food [American Measurements]

by Jamie Oliver

Jamie's most popular cookbook goes Mediterranean in this mouth-watering follow-up

PRE-ORDER THE BRAND NEW 5 INGREDIENTS MEDITERRANEAN COOKBOOK FROM JAMIE OLIVER

This edition has been adapted for the US market.

5 Ingredients Mediterranean is everything people loved about the first book, but with the added va-va-voom of basing it on Jamie's lifelong travels around the Mediterranean.

With over 125 utterly delicious, easy-to-follow recipes, it’s all about making everyday cooking super-exciting, with minimal fuss – all while transporting you to sunnier climes.
You'll find recipes to empower you to make incredibly delicious food, but without copious amounts of ingredients, long shopping lists or loads of cleaning up. 65% of the recipes are meat-free or meat-reduced, and all offer big, bold flavor.

With chapters including Salads, Soups and Sandwiches, Pasta, Vegetables, Pies and Parcels, Seafood, Fish, Chicken and Duck, Meat, and Desserts , you’ll find something for every day of the week, and every occasion.

Dishes

· Tender smoky eggplant
· Epic prawns & beans
· Rogue ratatouille risotto
· Sizzling squid
· Island salad
· Herby steak & crispy potatoes
· Easy fig tart
· Jools’ chocolate dreams

It's a real celebration of hero Mediterranean flavors and ingredients – quick and easy recipes for exciting everyday cooking.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Health, Food, Reference, Food and Drink

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 23, 2024

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

James Trevor "Jamie" Oliver, sometimes known as The Naked Chef, is an English chef and media personality well known for his growing list of food-focused television shows, his more recent roles in campaigning against the use of processed foods in national schools, and his campaign to change unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits for the better across the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed a copy from my local library, however I may have to buy a copy for my personal library as it is chockfull of recipes I'd like to try.

[Miss✧Pickypants ᓚᘏᗢ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautifully designed cookbook that leans toward the Mediterranean would be great for less experienced cooks and reminds more experienced cooks that you can make delicious meals with just handful of really good ingredients. Hard to believe that this is the author's 27th cookbook!

All recipes are composed with 5 primary ingredients as the author does allow for 5 pantry ingredients that don't count towards the 5 (these being olive oil, finishing olive oil, salt, pepper and red wine vinegar).
Recipes are easy to follow and are accompanied by tasteful color photos of every finished dish along with smaller pictures of each of the 5 ingredients underneath. I appreciated the use of mediterranean ingredients (e.g, tahini, harissa, yogurt) and that the shortcuts, like using frozen and canned vegetables, were healthy whole-food options that save time (and there were no super-processed ingredients like fake meats used).

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe no one's putting Oliver to task for listing "mixed frozen mediterranean veggies," or "bag of chopped onions, carrots, and celery" as ONE ingredient. Not only is that a huge cheat, if your supermarket doesn't carry such conveniences (and I've never seen something like that in the supermarkets in my area; if I had, I would have been all over it, believe me) then your number of ingredients and amount of work has just gone up exponentially. I also don't appreciate the occasionally vague ingredient list ("spice blend" uh like what kind of spice blend??).

As for the complaints I've seen that there's too much meat to be truly Med, or that there are "weird" ingredients, eh. Yes, there are chapters devoted to meat. If you don't want to eat meat, there are plenty of fish and vegetarian recipes, I feel. And there are "weird" ingredients, but not any more than have been in many of his other books.

Anyway... I've tried two recipes so far and they're both okay, but I do feel overall the recipes aren't as accessible to general US audiences as his first 5 Ingredients cookbook, which was amazing. That's kind of the thing with Med cookbooks, though – it's a completely different style of life AND cooking, which makes it hard to adapt.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This different five ingredients because it is Mediterranean areas, Jamie admitted that does not do more than one book of the same style but he has had some meny requests for more that he just had to do a flow up this it. If people ask for it why not.
This full of recipes

[K. East · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could imagine myself eating and enjoying many of these recipes. I could even "see" Oliver making them in his home kitchen. What I couldn't imagine was ME making any of them. Somehow, having only 5 ingredients makes these recipes sound simple or quick, but most of them are neither. No argument that the recipes and ingredients span the Mediterranean and offer some intriguing combinations, and certainly no argument that Oliver is an adventurous chef, but some of his instructions could use some editing for the masses, as we are the ones buying his books. To tell me to cook something until it looks "gnarly" or to "season to perfection" without any additional direction leaves non-professional cooks a bit in the dark.
On the plus side, the book is full of amazing, full page photographs and I found some of the combinations intriguing, but many of the spices and ingredients called for are not easily found anywhere outside larger cities in the USA. It is easy to see from the way he describes how to make these recipes that Oliver is very comfortable and confident in the kitchen and whipping up one of these recipes would be something I'd enjoying watching. But until I get an invite to visit his kitchen and sample one of these dishes, I'm not likely to invest in the range of spices and ingredients and methods needed to actually make one of these dishes. Pity. I do love to eat!

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not revolutionary but some of the recipes were worth borrowing from the library for.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous pictures in this book. Even though the recipes aren’t anything that I would tackle in my own kitchen it was fun to read through them and give myself of ideas that I might get in a restaurant.

[Kjersti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of variety and nice straightforward recipes. I made a few dishes and while they didn’t blow me away, they were solid and a good way to mix up dinner without spinning out on a complicated recipe. I do want to thank Jamie for introducing me to the frozen mirepoix mix of precut onions, carrots, celery that is a life cheat code I will be using from here on out.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple recipes that are delicious. What more can you ask for?

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the pictures are beautiful, I just couldn't see myself making most of these recipes.

[Furrawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Mediterranean cookbook so go into expecting lots of fish, shrimp, and veggies. Expect to buy some new spices like sumac and harissa. A ton of these recipes look simple and fantastic. I’m doing keto, and plenty of them will work for me. There are also a lot of recipes that I want to try when I’m not doing keto. Recipes using bread… The ENTIRE dessert section… all look like recipes I will try. I often don’t get this excited about so many recipes in a cookbook so I’m very glad I purchased it. Mediterranean food is part of the whole longevity and blue zones thing which is an added bonus.

One caveat, Jamie Oliver doesn’t baby us with these recipes. He gives very spare directions that assume we aren’t just learning to cook. This always makes me a bit uncomfortable at first, but I enjoy the cooking more as my confidence in the cookbook increases. Also, the directions don’t have any warnings of pitfalls or etc. You’re on your own. I expect that as I try recipes in this book, I’ll write down extra things/steps for myself that I notice as I cook. I get the idea is five ingredients. Quick. Fast. Spare. A zillion directions undermines the simplicity.

A solid cookbook. One I think that will become loved in our household.

[Lissa Revenew · Rating 2 out of 5]

So good in theory. However there is promise of substitutions which didn’t exist. Also there were not great descriptions of ingredients. Mixed spices? What does that mean? There were spices mentioned in the back but no explanation on when or where to use them.

[Domenic Conte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half of the ingredients are not "simple".

[Jiri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad - not useful to me for multiple reasons listed below.

This was a monthly selection in our cookbook club, we had a chance to try about 40 recipes from it made by about 25 people.

I don't want to bash people who are making creative content. Jamie Oliver is popular on TV, especially with women (my mother included) and has built his "naked chef" brand over the years. He worked hard on his brand to improve British food culture especially for kids and in schools to make it healthy and simpler.
I feel that using the brand he has built, the team is just pumping out content of poor quality to capitalize.

The general feedback in our group was: lack of flavor, the 5-ingredient headline is deceiving, poor and confusing instructions and lack of instruction and ingredient amounts.

The flavor was mostly bland, in trying to do a 5 ingredient goal there is often a lack of onions, garlic, herbs and spices that could have improved the reciepe. A few people managed better results but usually commented that they added extra ingredients to improve the flavor (not according to the recipe in the book).

5-ingredients is misleading as many recipes contain a mix of ingredients counted as 1: mixed frozen vegetables, mixed marinated olives, mixed cooked grains, etc. Other recipes use ingredients like selfraising flour which you could easily make from flour, salt and baking powder that are probably in your pantry but would add an additional ingredient. Oil, vinegar, salt, pepper , olive oil and water are not counted as part of the 5 ingredients making it further misleading and are usually mentioned without giving measurements or listing it in the recipe ingredients.

Many recipes call for "season to perfection" - what does that mean? What are you supposed to season with? How much? And if you already know this part, do you really need this book?

Many recipes had to be cooked a lot longer to be done.

If you are making a dough: is the water supposed to be warm or cold, rest the dough - how long?, is the dish supposed to be hot, cold or room temperature?

The spinach pie I made was ok but bland (needed onions and garlic) the dough/crust was bland and not very pleasant (storebought pizzadough would have been better).
Baked apricots (myself and an additional member made it). If you are "celebrating stonefruit", don't use canned ones. The frangipane to pour over the fruit was horrible, gritty and did not set up even when cooking it double the time (for both of us). It did not specify if you serve it hot or cold (neither was good). The meringue made with hot honey needed to specify a temperature so the meringue would set and cook - which it did not on either account. Bad recipe, bad instructions and horrible result.

There are many other things I disliked about this book and I would never recommend it or use any of his other books based on this one.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 INGREDIENTS MEDITERRANEAN by Jamie Oliver is published by Penguin Michael Joseph in August 2023
Review by Lorraine Parker
Another high quality publication, beautifully illustrated with straight forward chapters, using 5 basic ingredients that are the pantry necessities or “heroes’ to begin with and an extensive index to end.
Jamie has divided this book into Salads, Soups & Sarnies, Pasta, Veg, Pies and Parcels (has a special ring for me), Seafood, Fish, Chicken & Duck, Meat, Sweet Things, Helpful Kitchen Notes and the, oh, so important Nutrition.
As in all good recipe guides each one has a word from Jamie, how many it serves, total time involved, ingredients and instructions. However, the latter are not in point form (could it be space saving?). Included is, ‘to serve with’ suggestions. Personally I value this but feel it would have been that much clearer to have a small heading!
I love to flip through a new cook book, pop in some page markers for immediate appeal and to try-out, then go back and read more thoroughly. So here are just a few that appeal to me, all have 5 ingredients (+ the basics); Naked Salad Tunisienne, Mozzarella Salad, Lemony Rocket Farfalle, Tortilla Frittata, Stuffed Cabbage Leaves, (whoops surely better called Parcels), Croatian Mussels, Simple Steamed Fish, Juicy Charred Chicken, Rolled Braised Steak, Easy Fig Tart, Kinda Baklava and a delectable simple Baked Cheesecake.
Jamie is an international celebrity cook, loved by many. Surely he could include, where appropriate, alternative ingredients. For example, in mushroom soup we need chestnut mushrooms. I look up alternatives. There are many! Are chargrilled Mediterranean frozen vegetables easily available? Yet one more is Taleggio cheese (or am I ignorant). Google suggests so many alternatives!
Please, do not let this criticism put you off. I have just ‘nit-picked’ a few recipes out of many.
However, one more point and, again it may be just me. Who purchases cook books, especially those with but 5 ingredients? Surely, those really keen on cooking, cooks in a hurry, lovers of good food but, most of all, those not addicted to the internet! We want to feel and see the pages and to work from the pages. So please, why is the font so small, as well so very pale. I need a light!
I will use this book with love.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cookbook is good, but I liked the regular (non-Mediterranean) version better. There are some total gems in here - the crabmeat meatballs, the chocolate-espresso desert, the chicken swarma traybake. But it felt in some places like he was pushing the Mediterranean aspect a little hard. Also, I rarely have Halloumi cheese just laying around.

However, these meals have pretty good general appeal, and there is a broad range of meatless, snacks, pasta, etc that will appeal to most palates. I found a few of the salads to not be satisfying enough for a meal, but that's not a big issue. There is complete nutrition information for every recipe, and most of these cook up in 30 minutes or less.

This is worth checking out if you're looking for quick, healthy-ish recipes. These didn't appeal to my family as much as his previous book, but they may appeal to yours even more.

[Josianne Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this idea of only 5 ingredients. He assumes you have olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper on hand so those aren’t counted.

Represents so many of the Mediterranean countries. I didn’t think of the Middle Eastern countries as Mediterranean but obviously they are. And their food is so delicious!

A lot of the recipes have tomatoes and plentiful dairy so that is not so good for me, so I’m sticking to the ones that I can eat. Tried the Brussels sprouts salad with yogurt, and was good. Tonight I’m making chicken breasts with garbanzo beans and spinach. There’s a sardine toast with quick pickled cabbage that sounds good too.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love to read a good cookbook. Diving into the world of Mediterranean cooking and learning about combinations of flavors makes me want to try new and different things. What I love about Jamie Oliver's recipes in that he makes it simple yet delicious. I was hoping for a few recipes for some of the basics - Tzatziki and a few others. Also, many of his dishes use frozen Mediterranean vegetables. There is not description of what those vegetables are. If I can't find them prepackaged as noted I need to know what to buy fresh or frozen individually.

[Carm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there are some recipes like the baked tomatoes with peppers that i like. But like others i agree the specialized ingredients needed make me unable to do some of the recipes. There's a lot like i don't find unique like mushroom soup i don't need a recipe for. I find myself thinking the recipes require grilling which i am not about to do and while the recipe ingredients list are short, the variety of spices needed overwhelms because where would i keep the remaining in my small kitchen? i don't think this book has been given enough thought and is not that well executed.

[Mircah Foxwood]

I don’t know why I tried this book, because I didn’t like the last Jamie Oliver 5 ingredient book I reviewed. Recipes are personal, and some of these recipes just aren’t to my taste.
However, I also dislike how some of the ingredients are a cheat: for example, using a pre made shawarma paste as one ingredient. I don’t tend to stock premade mixes and sauces due to food intolerances, so a recipe that requires such a thing no longer represents an easy 5 ingredient meal for me.

[Brian Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an entertaining and informative cookbook. I liked the "5 ingredients" approach for its simplicity and ease of preparation. Some of the ingredients tend to the exotic "hard-to-find" category. The presentation, especially the photographs, are first rate. It's printed on high quality heavy paper which I find is good for a cookbook - food stains are easy to wipe off.

[Nancie Lafferty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, different, delicious and interesting 5 ingredient dishes. Nutrition information, lovely photos of both the finished dish and the ingredients at the end of each recipe. Well laid out with table of contents, index and lists of which recipes are, for example, gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian. Quite an excellent cookbook!

[Rachel H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the way he writes recipes, simplified and easy to follow. As a vegetarian I appreciate the veg-forward approach and healthy recipes. However I didn’t feel inclined to make anything from it. But nice to flip through and get tips/ideas.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent cookbook.
The ingredients are easily obtainable. The instructions are easy to follow and the photographs are very inviting to make me want to cook the dishes. I will be investing and buying a copy for me and as gifts.

[Cindee Ketches · Rating 4 out of 5]

He did it again! A wonderfully laid out book with beautiful pictures and easy recipes.
My only complaint is that he says that they are all 5 ingredients; but he uses a frozen pack of mirepoix and many spice mixes.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s pretty amazing what you can do with just 5 ingredients, but I probably won’t be trying most of these recipes. Interested in a few of the bready ones, as he uses only flour & water. Book has a nice easy layout with lots of photos.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite, I’ve only bookmarked 7 recipes.

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry, ik vind m niet leuk

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many recipes I would like to try from this book. I enjoy the simplicity and the attitude towards food.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keen to whip some of these together. Looks simple, easy and fun. Most of the ingredients seem relatively easy to access or something you already have (or can be subbed for other things.)