Besides being an affordable furniture haven for home lovers, IKEA is well known for its fried chicken wings and Swedish meatballs as well. I’ve always been curious of what goes into the meatballs.
Recently, I just realized they are selling the frozen meatballs at its chilled food section. But since I’ve already set my mind on making them from scratch, I left for the supermarket to gather the ingredients. Thinking back, I should have grabbed that bottle of lingonberry jam. Oh well.
Armed with a new found determination and a hungry tummy, I made these Swedish meatballs that very night. Being an ardent fan of IKEA meatballs, my skeptical 15 year old cautiously took a bite of these homemade version. “Hmm, these are actually better than Ikea’s.” Those were her exact words, hence, I shamelessly named them “Better-than-IKEA Swedish Meatballs”.
You could definitely make them ahead and freeze the remaining in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Ingredients:
300 g minced beef
300 g minced pork
1 yellow onion – diced finely
2 egg yolks
½ cup panko
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
¼ tsp all spice
¼ tsp salt
Black pepper
¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
Gravy: (good for 20 meatballs)
1 cup (250 ml) beef stock
¼ cup (60 ml) whipping cream
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Makes about 40 x 1” meatballs
Recipe adapted from: Damn Delicious
Sauté the diced onions over low heat with some melted butter or oil until translucent, approx. 3 – 5 mins. Allow to cool.
In a large bowl, combine the all the ingredients (except vegetable oil) together and mix well with your hands. To avoid sticky hands, use a pair of plastic gloves like I did.
Using a spoon or ice-cream scoop, portion and roll them into approx. 1” sized balls or as desired size.
Place on a tray and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
*If you want to freeze some of them, put them into Ziploc and place in the freezer.
30 mins before cooking, bring the meatballs out from the fridge to room temperature.
In a large skillet or pan, heat up the vegetable oil and add in the meatballs.
Cook them over medium heat until golden brown on both sides. It should take about 5 mins.
Drain and set aside.
Prepare the sauce by melting the butter in a large skillet or pan.
Add in flour and cook over low heat for 1 min.
Add in beef stock and Worcestershire sauce and bring to boil.
Simmer over low heat until sauce thickened. Add in whipping cream and give it a final mix and taste.
Add in the meatballs and toss until sauce coats evenly on the meatballs.
Serve warm with lingonberry / cranberry / strawberry jam.