Recipes Around the World: Swedish Meatballs

Continuing the ‘Recipes Around the World‘ series, Emma from Emma’s Roadmap is sharing how to make Swedish meatballs! Here’s Emma with all the details:

We all know Swedish Meatballs from IKEA, but they are so much better when you make them yourself!

A few months ago, I met one of my best friends on exchange in Canada. When I went to visit her in Sweden she taught me how to make real Swedish meatballs! I had so much fun trying to pronounce all the Swedish ingredients in the supermarket (must have looked like I was crazy)!

Here’s how to cook Swedish Meatballs at home!

Cultural Context

Swedish meatballs are a traditional Swedish dish and it is THE number one delicacy you should try when visiting Sweden! It used to be a dish eaten by the Swedish royals but nowadays you can find them everywhere!

Swedish meatballs (or köttbullar in Swedish) are typically served with potatoes (I prefer mashed potatoes but any kind will do fine), gravy and lingonberries.

The recipe is fairly easy but does take some time. However, it’s definitely worth it. I will spare you the unpronounceable Swedish names and just go ahead with the English version. 😉

Ingredients

*Serves 4 People

General

• Salt
• Pepper
• Cooking oil

Meatballs

• 500g minced meat (ground beef)
• ¼ cup of breadcrumbs (1/2 dl)
• 1 onion
• 1 egg
• Half a cup of milk (1 dl)

Gravy

• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 4 tablespoons of flour
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of cream (25cl)
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 piece (or ½ tbsp) beef broth

Mashed Potatoes

• 2 egg yolks
• 4 huge potatoes
• Half a cup of milk (1 dl)
• nutmeg

Lingonberries

1. Fresh lingonberries or lingonberry jam (generally 2 tablespoons per person)

Recipe + Preparation

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Meatballs

1. Mix the breadcrumbs with the milk. Leave it for 10 minutes.
2. Chop the onion as fine as possible (you will have to put them in the meat).
3. Mix the meat, onion, egg, salt, and pepper with the breadcrumbs and milk. Mix until it is (kind of) smooth.
4. Roll small balls and fry them in the pan until they are fully cooked.

Mashed Potatoes

1. Peel the potatoes and chop them in equal pieces. Put the potatoes in a casserole full of water together with a pinch of salt and let it cook until they become soft enough to mash.
2. Mash them and mix the mashed potatoes with the egg yolks and the milk. Spice it up with some salt, black pepper, and nutmeg.

Gravy

1. Melt the butter and mix it carefully with the flour. Let it simmer for a minute.
2. Warm the water and mix it with the broth. Put it slowly in the mix of flour and butter and stir until the blend thickens.
3. Put in the cream and soy. Be very careful and add each of it slowly to not disturb the blend.
4. Let everything simmer for 2 minutes, then serve it!

In case you can’t find lingonberry jam or sauce at your local grocery store—it’s available here on Amazon. Alternatively, you could substitute cranberry sauce which has a similar tart and fresh taste.

Tips + Tricks

• Typical Swedish meatballs are very small. My first mistake was to roll them too big, do not do this!
• Make an effort to chop the onion as fine as possible! Big chunks of onion in your meatballs are very hard to cook.
• It is up to you to choose how smooth you want your mashed potatoes to be; more milk will make a smoother blend.

Final Thoughts

I hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as I do! On my trip to Sweden I could not help but eat them every day (whoops!).

Enjoy!