Ikea’s Swedish Meatballs

When the pandemic hit and people couldn’t go to Ikea for their Swedish meatball fix, Ikea generously posted their recipe for everyone. Granted, it’s not 100% the same, and the sauce is secret–so they posted a similar sauce. But it’s great. I generally ended up doubling the sauce and making a few other slight adjustments, so here’s the final recipe. Of course you should serve with lingonberries if you can find any (it’s hard unless you buy some at Ikea), but I have served it with cranberry sauce or I think even raspberry jam once.

Every time I make it, I forget the stipulation that you should refrigerate it for 2 hours. I usually just refrigerate it like 20 minutes to an hour. I don’t mind if my meatballs are a little flatter, because they hold together well enough. Last time I made it, I doubled the meatball recipe, which almost filled up a whole cookie sheet. And I made 1 1/2 times the sauce in the recipe below, and it was a good amount of sauce. If I’d doubled the sauce, it would’ve been tons. Also, I’m not sure it needs so much cream. I think next time I might use half cream, half milk. Haha, or just use all half and half. And frankly, one time I made it dairy free with coconut and almond milk, and Jeff didn’t notice.

If you’re making this gluten free, I did try it once using crushed tortilla chips instead of breadcrumbs. Haha, I’ll never do that again. It ended up tasting like oily chips. So you could use gluten free breadcrumbs or ground up Rice Chex, cornstarch instead of flour, and gluten free soy sauce, which is what I did last time (it’s the one in the picture)–and it was delicious.

Make it a meal with:

• Mashed Potatoes
• Lingonberry Jam (or raspberry jam or cranberry sauce if you can’t find lingonberry)
• Peas

Ikea Swedish Meatballs

• Servings: 4
• Time: 3 hr?
• Difficulty: medium-hard
• Print

Adapted from Ikea’s officially released recipe.

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1 lb. Ground Beef
• 1/2 lb. Ground Pork
• 1 small Onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove Garlic (about 1/2 tsp. minced)
• 100 g. Breadcrumbs (or gluten free breadcrumbs or crushed Rice Chex)
• 1 Egg
• 5 Tbsp. Milk (or almond milk for dairy free)
• Generous Salt and Pepper

Cream Sauce (doubled from original, with some modifications)

• Dash of Oil
• 6 Tbsp. Butter
• 2/3 c. Flour (or 1/3 c. cornstarch)
• 2 1/2 c. Beef Broth
• 2 c. Cream (or 1 can full fat coconut milk for dairy free)
• 1 Tbsp. + Soy Sauce (or gluten free soy sauce/tamari)
• 2 tsp. Dijon Mustard

Directions

In a large bowl, combine beef and pork, and break up any lumps with your hands. Add onion, garlic, breadcrumbs, and egg, then mix well. Add milk and season well with salt and pepper. Shape mixture into small balls, and place on a cookie sheet in the fridge for 2 hours (this will help them hold their shape while cooking). In a frying pan, heat oil on medium heat, then add meatballs and brown on all sides. When browned, add back to the cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

For cream sauce: Melt butter and whisk in flour or cornstarch, stirring for 2 minutes. Add stock and continue to stir. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer, allowing sauce to thicken. Add meatballs (not with the grease from the pan) and stir. Serve over mashed potatoes with lingonberry (or other berry) sauce.

FYI, here’s the original recipe from Ikea: