Recreate These Famed Swedish Meatballs At Home

Meatballs, commonly associated with a tomato sauce in Italian cooking, has a Swedish counterpart that’s equally celebrated and hyped on the internet. If you’ve been on Instagram and TikTok, these meatballs garner their fame courtesy of a world-renowned furniture store, that features them on their food court menu. If you’ve had an opportunity to  visit the food court, we’re sure you’ve ticked off the meatballs off of your foodie checklist. But if you haven’t, don’t sweat it. We’ve cracked the code to recreate them at home without the fuss of waiting in line or have a shopping agenda looming over your head!

Swedish Meatballs

Recipe:

Ingredients [For Meatballs]:

• 500 grams minced pork or chicken
• 1 small onion chopped
• ¼ cup breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 egg
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Oil for shallow frying

Ingredients [For Gravy]:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 500 ml chicken stock OR
• 1 stock cube dissolved in 500 ml warm water
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 100 ml red wine
• Salt to taste

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Method:

• Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onions for a few minutes until they turn translucent. Add the minced meat to a mixing bowl and add the sauteed onions, breadcrumbs, parsley, egg and season to taste. Mix everything together thoroughly but not for too long.
• Form the minced meat into bite-sized balls and place on a tray until they are ready to be fried. Heat some oil in a pan and once it begins to smoke, add in the meatballs a few at a time. Be mindful about not overcrowding the pan too much as you want the meatballs to fry, not braise. Flip them every couple of minutes to ensure that they turn a golden-brown colour on all sides. It is not necessary to cook them entirely during this step.
• Place them on a plate and repeat the previous step until all your meatballs have been partially cooked. In the same pan, add the butter. Once melted, add in the flour and stir well until all lumps have been dissolved into the fat and remains from the meatballs.
• Continue to cook the flour and butter mixture until the colour of the roux changes from a pale yellow to a shade of walnut brown. Once that happens, add in the red wine and cook until the alcohol evaporates and it becomes a homogenous mixture.
• Drizzle in the chicken stock and stir until combined. Add the soy sauce and mustard and check for seasoning. Since the soy is already salty, go easy on the salt and only add some, if needed. Add the meatballs to the sauce and cover and cook for about 5-10 minutes, depending on whether you’re using white or red meat.
• Serve on top of mashed potatoes with veggies of your choice and a dollop of cranberry jam.