Swedish Meatballs
Swedish Meatballs are considered a national food, often served with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. Shop ahead for the lingonberry jam (Amazon or Ikea). You can replace with Cranberries if you want to serve something sweet with the meatballs.
Swedish Meatballs
Traditionally the meatballs are made of ground beef and pork. We make ours with beef only. We have tried using ground chicken/turkey, but the flavour just isn’t there. Our version is Gluten Free. Swedish Meatballs are much smaller than their Italian counterparts.Once the meatballs are made, this dish comes together very quicky, all cooked in one large skillet.
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 2 TBSP butter
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 1 lb. (454 gr) ground beef
- 2 TBSP (24 gr) rice crumbs
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup (30 g) red onion, finely chopped
- ¼ tsp. ground allspice
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- 1 egg beaten
Gravy:
- 1 cup beef stock
- 2 TBSP (16 gr) cornstarch
- 1 cup cream
- 1 tsp. Dijon
- 1 tsp. Gluten Free Worcestershire Sauce
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add rice crumbs and milk. Stir to incorporate and let rest 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add ground beef to a larger bowl along with chopped onion.
- After the rice crumb and milk has rested, add the allspice, salt, pepper and beaten egg. Stir to mix in the spices and add to the hamburger mixture.
- We use a 1 TBSP cookie scoop to size the meatballs, which will make 38 bite sized meatballs.
- Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet and add meatballs in one layer.
- Fry until cooked through and darker brown in color. About 10 minutes.
- Remove the meatballs to a plate with a slotted spoon, leaving any pan juices in the skillet.
- Mix beef broth and cornstarch, stirring until smooth.
- Let the skillet cool a bit before adding the cream. Stir up any brown bits from the skillet and then add the beef and cornstarch along with Dijon, Worcestershire, and spices.
- Whisk constantly until gravy thickens and comes to a boil.
- Add the meatballs, warm, and serve immediately with mashed potatoes, pasta or rice.
- Garnish with chopped parsley.
Notes
Even though this is a cream-based sauce, the beef and mustard/Worcestershire flavours make a difference. A Merlot was lovely as was a Chardonnay.
We’ve paired:
- Gnarly Head Merlot 2019 ($15.00) A solid Merlot for the price
- Josh Cellars Chardonnay 2019 ($22.00) The oak stands up to the flavours of the dish.
- Domaine Lafage Novellum Chardonnay ($30.00) If you prefer an unoaked Chardonnay.