Ikea Swedish Meatballs Recipe

What would you say if I told you I have a recipe for Ikea Swedish meatballs that are better than the ones from Ikea?

Why you’ll love them

• You can make them in just 30 minutes. So they make a perfect crowd pleasing and comforting midweek meal.

• You know exactly what’s going into them. No unidentifiable filler or preservative. I’m not suggesting that’s what’s in Ikea’s meatballs, but you know… homemade has to be better!

• The combination of beef and pork mince, the spoonfuls of allspice and the dill give them a complexity of flavour that you’ll love.

• There are secret ingredients in the gravy that send it from good to amazing.

• Speaking of the sauce, follow this recipe and you’ll get a generous amount. Better a bit too much than not enough. No gravy stingy-ness here!

How to make these Ikea Swedish meatballs

The hardest part of this Ikea Swedish meatballs recipe is shaping the meatballs. And the word ‘hardest’ is relative i.e. not very hard at all.

All you do to make them is:

Step 1: Throw all the meatball ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.

Step 2: Shape into meatballs the size of a walnut.

Step 3: Pan fry until cooked through, then remove from the pan and keep warm in the oven.

Step 4: Make the sauce in the same pan.

How to make the gravy

Of course, the magic of this recipe lies mostly in the gravy!

There are just 6 ingredients in it:

• Flour. All purpose is fine.
• Good quality beef broth.
• Lingonberry or cranberry sauce.
• Cream. For the creamiest, I like to use heavy or thickened cream, but another type of cream will work too.
• Mustard (I like Dijon)
• Worcestershire sauce. This makes all the difference, adding delicious umami flavor.

All you do is melt a little butter in the pan, stir in the flour, then gradually add the beef broth, stirring all the time. Let it bubble for a minute or two until thickened, then stir in the rest of the sauce ingredients.

How to serve them

• I like to serve Ikea style Swedish meatballs in the Winter with a big scoop of mashed cauliflower and potatoes or simpler truffle mashed potatoes.
• We also need veggies, of course. Add peas, quick sautéed frozen green beans, pan-roasted frozen broccoli, sautéed frozen spinach, or pan-roasted butternut squash.
• They’re also great served over your favourite pasta. Or with some simple oven roasted potatoes such as these classy cubed potatoes.
• Alternatively, serve them with fresh bread such as this easy homemade focaccia bread and a simple salad such as this Greek lettuce salad. This makes the meal a bit lighter so you can serve it any time of year.
• If you have an air fryer, go with air fryer garlic bread.
• At Ikea of course they are always served with a spoonful of red berry sauce (lingonberry sauce) on the side. Either pick a jar up from the Ikea food shop next time you go flat pack furniture shopping, or use cranberry sauce instead.

Can you freeze them?

Yes! You can freeze them uncooked by freezing them first on baking trays then transferring to big freezer bags. When you want to eat them just defrost and cook as you normally would. Make the sauce fresh.

You can even cook them from frozen if you like. Just add a few extra minutes to the cooking time.

Alternatively, sometimes I just freeze the meatball mixture in a container. I defrost the mixture and shape them into meatballs on the day I want to cook them.

I don’t recommend freezing the cooked meatballs in the sauce as the cream tends to separate when defrosting.

More 30-minute meals

• Creamy lemon chicken orzo soup
• Easy baked gnocchi with sausage, peppers and tomatoes
• Eggplant with ground beef and pasta (an easier take on moussaka!)
• The simplest stovetop chicken and rice or one pan marry me chicken pasta
• OR check out all my easy midweek meals!

Love meatballs? Try these air fryer Greek chicken meatballs or this one pan Greek burgers and potatoes as well!