I asked Jamie Oliver for his go-to summer lunch - get ready to eat this unexpected, easy meal on repeat

If you've found yourself Googling 'simple summer meal ideas' or scrolling the internet for healthy, easy ways to host outside, I'm with you. Summer is a beautiful time of year to eat, but it's also tricky. I’ve already faced the dinner dilemma more times than I’d like to admit. So when I had the chance to ask Jamie Oliver for some fresh inspiration, you can bet I had my notebook ready.

Ever the king of fuss-free cooking, Jamie Oliver is always finding clever ways to make good food even easier. He's taught me a trick which doubles the space in your air fryer and even recently launched a pizza oven that's perfect for beginners. Now, he’s sharing his secrets for effortless summer eating and hosting.

I spent the morning at Jamie’s new cookery school, fully decked out with cutting-edge Samsung AI appliances. In that time, I cooked one of his go-to summer dishes — twice. When he introduced the recipe, he called it “a bit audacious.” Then he grinned and added, “It’s a bit mad, but it’s easy, it’s quick, and it’s blimmin’ delicious too. If I’m having friends over or just want to throw together something from the fridge, this is what I make.” Ready to host like Jamie Oliver? Of course you are.

Jamie Oliver's Summer Hosting Tips

So, what's the genius idea? Jamie Oliver has taken the traditional Yorkshire pudding, infused it with summer flavours, and changed the way we serve it. He places a large dish of Yorkshire pudding on a platter, treating it like a tear and share loaf that doubles up as a wrap. Then, he packs colourful summer vegetables and fish inside. "It's great for sharing. People can use their hands, tear pieces off, fill it up, and eat as much as they want. You don't have to spend time fiddling away with portioning food up, you can sit back and chill, I love it."

Now, if you're anything like me, you might be a little apprehensive about a Yorkshire pudding platter, but the way that Jamie cooks all the components makes the big difference. He's got a trick to make your Yorkshire puddings taste cheffy, a healthy way to cook colourful vegetables, and a cheap trick for making - in his words "frumpy courgettes look really elegant." I managed to get my five a day on my plate with lots of colours too. I've made it at least twice a week since and now I'm ready to share the secret.

Make a platter

The whole premise of Jamie Oliver's special summer lunch works off the idea of sharing boards and platters. I've been a long time lover of the smorgasbord style dining and Jamie says “it’s a genius, easy way to host. You can prep on it, you can cook on it, you can serve on it. You can be a bit dramatic and also you get to share the food, everyone helps themselves, you can sit back, chill out, and enjoy the vibes.”

Jamie actually has his own mango wood chopping board that doubles up as a serving board which I used for my brunch prep and I have to say that it’s really truly lovely. The thick, warm wood makes a great base for pizzas, roast dinners, mezze-style serving and breakfast spreads,

If you’re thinking that this could be your ticket to an easy summer of hosting and dining, of course, Jamie’s cookbooks are full of good ideas, but I also love this book, called Platters and Boards, which is dedicated to platter ideas.

Jamie Oliver All-Rounder Board: at jamieoliver.com

Jamie's mango wood chopping board brings rustic charm and texture to any meal. You can see it has bread on here, but I think it makes the perfect platter for just about any and every meal.

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Fill the platter with colourful vegetables

One of Jamie's many passion projects is getting us all eating more vegetables. As he was explaining the meal, Jamie couldn't resist explaining why the vegetables were a non-negotiable. "“As a nation, we’re eating less vegetables than ever," he says, "and when people say that vegetables are boring it’s because they’re not giving them the love and the respect and the care,” he’s smiling and tossing a bowl of colourful vegetables while he says this and it's the most compelling argument I've ever heard for asparagus, second to the flavours that came out from how Jamie prepared them.

When we got to prepping, Jamie explained that to whip up this dish "you just need good pans and decent knives as well as one of the cheapest gadgets." At this point, he holds a peeler in the air. "Cheap, cheap, cheap," he says, "amazing. Even my friends that can't use a knife could use this. With a peeler you can get sushi chef quality slithers. A chef couldn't do that. That's the beauty of a peeler. We can use something cheap to create something beautiful and elegant out of something frumpy."

Sharppeel Stainless Steel Potato and Vegetable Y Peeler: at Lakeland

The humble peeler does a lot of hard work in Jamie's kitchen. This is the one that we had in the cookery school and it's a place where Jamie promises you don't need to spend a lot of money.

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The peeler isn't where Jamie's magic stops. It's actually only the beginning. He explains "we can make delicious meals out of things that you have in your fridge, but how? I have this method that I love. I worked in Japan for a few years and they were very very good at dry grilling. As a chef, you are trained to take vegetables, put olive oil on them and then grill them. I don’t agree with that. In Japan, what they would do (and I love their logic, I love their intelligence for food), they would dry grill vegetables and it actually gives you a very different flavour.”

Essentially, this meant taking peppers, asparagus, and courgette. and sitting it in a pan (we used Jamie Oliver's very own collection, which has been made in collaboration with Tefal) without any oil. Keep the hob on a medium heat and you'll see them charr. The end result will be some beautifully sweet, soft, smoky vegetables. That's not the end of it yet.

Jamie Oliver's trick for dressing vegetables

After dry grilling, the vegetables had lost some moisture, which is where Jamie brought in the big guns. Dressing. This is actually a really simple component: it's olive oil, herbs, and a vinegar or citrus fruit.

Jamie started off by confessing his love for herbs. "Herbs changed my life," he says, "if I didn't have herbs in the world, I wouldn't cook. And they're so cheap to grow and so easy to grow, even in the UK which is famous for being a bit rainy and miserable,"

He chopped up parsley to mix in with the olive oil. Jamie paraded around the kitchen with a bottle of this like a trophy. "We love olive oil, he proclaimed, "it's got It’s got antioxidants, polyphenols, it’s my number one oil of choice. It’s a delicious flavour. There’s science behind the Mediterranean diet."

"We’ll take some lovely olive oil. Three parts oil to one part acid — we can play with that we can choose lemon, lime, orange, a blend, white wine vinegar grapefruit juice, a seasoning of salt and pepper. I know it’s really basic. If I’m doing a barbecue and I’ve got friends coming round, I might do a lemon and olive oil dressing with mint and asparagus then with courgette, I’ll change the herb and change the acid and then you’re amplifying all the natural differences of the vegetables."

I tossed the vegetables in this dressing and the sweet caramelisation that I had from the dry grilling married up with the tangy, earthy, fresh notes of the dressing beautifully. This is the part of the recipe that I've been cooking on repeat.

Jamie Oliver's Yorkshire Pudding

Now, I promised you some Yorkshire pudding and so that's what you'll get. Jamie Oliver's Yorkshire pudding recipe was actually created with some of the country's top chemists because he wanted to get the perfect rise, crisp, and airiness, so there's science and passion behind them.

He took a large enamel tray and drizzled sunflower oil in it. "Lots of people worry about this amount of oil and they think it's unhealthy, but I've done loads of tests and your Yorkshire puddings don't actually absorb that much oil, it's just a non-stick and a crisping agent. That doesn't mean we can't have fun with it though."

Jamie recommends infusing the oil with rosemary to give it some flavour, which is a very simple stroke of genius. The Yorkshire pudding came out of the oven looking beautiful. Jamie arranged it on the board, completing the platter and then he tore off a section and used it like a wrap, filling it with the dressed vegetables. When I did the same later on, and the day after, and at the weekend, and the week after, the joy of it didn't wear off. This is my go-to summer brunch recipe.

It really is that simple. Jamie's platter idea is quick to work through and prepare ahead and then, as he points out, you can sit back and relax when the guests arrive. Most importantly, it's an easy way to enjoy vegetables in the summer.