Swedish meatballs
- Preparation 35 min
- Cooking 25 min
- Servings 4 to 6
- Freezing Absolutely
Ads
🥣 A full litre of sauce, and that is on purpose
Four cups of beef broth for two pounds of meat. That is double what most recipes use, and I did it that way on purpose. We like sauce around here. A Swedish meatball sitting half submerged in a creamy brown sauce built on sour cream and fresh thyme beats three spoonfuls of gravy parked beside it. The roux starts with butter and flour, the 14% sour cream softens it without weighing it down, and there is always some left for the next day. These are my Swedish meatballs, or köttbullar if you want to be fancy about it.
🌶️ Chinese five-spice, my back road to allspice
There is a quarter teaspoon of Chinese five-spice powder in this mix, and yes, that raises eyebrows. Here is the thing: five-spice is not really a Chinese invention in the way people assume. It is clove, star anise and cinnamon. That is the exact register of allspice, the spice every classic Swedish meatball leans on. I wanted warm spices that would pull that flavour forward and this is what I had on the shelf. Paired with nutmeg and oregano, it gives the meatballs a warm bottom note that nobody at the table can quite name.
🍚 What actually lands on the plate
The rest is simple. Two slices of regular brown sandwich bread soaked in milk, two big shallots softened in the pan, beef and pork in equal parts. No egg. The bread panade does the binding on its own and the meatball stays tender instead of turning rubbery. I scoop them with a heaping tablespoon, which gives roughly one inch meatballs, and I serve them with rice and roasted vegetables. A weeknight dinner that eats like a weekend one.
Ads
Ads
🌶️ About that Chinese five-spice
This is the one ingredient that will make you pause, so let me deal with it first. A classic Swedish meatball is built on allspice. Any grocery store five-spice blend plays the same chord: clove, star anise, cinnamon. That is why it works here.
No five-spice in the cupboard? Break it apart. A small pinch of ground clove, a pinch of cinnamon, a pinch of allspice if you have it, and you land in the same neighbourhood. One warning though: blends vary a lot from brand to brand. Some lean hard on clove, others on star anise. At a quarter teaspoon for two pounds of meat it stays subtle, but taste your blend first if you do not know it.
🥖 Soaked bread, not breadcrumbs
The panade here is two slices of ordinary brown sandwich bread, diced and left in the milk for two minutes. Not dry breadcrumbs, not panko. The bread swells, holds moisture through the searing, and that is what makes the texture tender. Not egg. Which is exactly why there is no egg in this recipe and why I have never missed it.
🥄 One heaping tablespoon
One heaping tablespoon of the mixture per meatball. That gives you roughly one inch meatballs, and with two pounds of meat you will end up with a serious pile of them.
🍳 They come out of the pan already cooked through
Plenty of recipes tell you to sear the outside and let the sauce finish the cooking. Not here. Five to six minutes total over medium-high heat, turning to brown each side, until the meatballs are fully cooked. The two to three minutes in the sauce at the end are only there to reheat them and coat them. Which also means you can taste one before you even start the gravy.
🧽 I wipe the pan
Half the internet builds Swedish meatball gravy on the browned bits left in the pan. I do not. Pork throws off a lot of fat and I would rather start clean: butter, flour, one to two minutes, then the full litre of broth. The sauce comes out clearer and sharper, and it never tastes scorched. Call it a choice, because that is what it is, but that is how I make it.
🛋️ Better than the IKEA version
Somebody has to say it, since that is the comparison everyone is already making. IKEA Swedish meatballs are fine, but they come out of a bag and the gravy starts as a powder. Here you get a real bread panade, sour cream, Dijon, fresh thyme and white wine. You taste the difference on the first bite, and you did not have to walk through an entire showroom to get to the restaurant.
❄️ Tomorrow, and next month
Three to four days in the fridge in an airtight container, and honestly they taste better on day two. As for freezing, go ahead, I recommend it. Just know that the sauce can split when it thaws and the texture will not be the prettiest thing you have ever seen. It will still taste really good. Reheat gently in a pan, stir, and if the sauce looks broken, a whisk and a little patience bring it back.
✅ What to serve with my Swedish meatballs?
At my place it is rice and roasted vegetables, full stop. My roasted garlic and maple carrots are hard to beat here, because the sweetness reaches for the warm spice in the sauce. My roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, mustard and maple syrup do the same job with more punch, and when you are in a rush, air fryer broccoli is ready before the sauce has finished thickening. And if it is the meatball itself you came for, go look at my meatballs in tomato sauce.
Ads
Ingredients
- 2 large French shallots, very finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- Olive oil
- 2 slices regular brown sandwich bread, diced
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
- 1 lb (500 g) lean ground beef
- 1 lb (500 g) lean ground pork
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) Chinese five-spice powder
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) dried oregano
- Fresh parsley, for serving
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Ingredients for the sauce
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) butter
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) flour
- 4 cups (1 L) beef broth
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) white wine
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) Dijon mustard
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) 14% sour cream
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) fresh thyme leaves
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Ads
Preparation
- In a large skillet over medium-low heat, add the shallots and garlic followed by a drizzle of olive oil. Cook, stirring for 3 to 4 minutes to soften. Pour into a plate and let cool for 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, add the bread and milk and toss. Let stand 2 minutes.
- Add the ground meat, the spices, the shallot mixture then season with salt and pepper generously. Mix with your hands for 4 to 5 minutes to combine the ingredients. Form small meatballs using a large tablespoon of the mixture. Set aside.
- In the same large skillet over medium-high heat, add a drizzle of olive oil and brown the meatballs on each side, for 5 to 6 minutes in total, until the meatballs are fully cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve on a plate.
- Wipe the pan and heat over medium-low heat. Melt the butter and add the flour. Mix to form a roux and cook for 1 to 2 minutes while stirring.
- Add beef broth, white wine and Dijon mustard then season with salt and pepper generously. Bring to a low boil and stir constantly with a whisk, for 3 to 5 minutes, to break up the lumps and thicken the sauce.
- Add the sour cream and the thyme leaves then mix with the whisk until smooth.
- Add the meatballs and mix to coat. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring gently, just long enough to reheat them in the sauce. Serve with rice and roasted vegetables. Spoon the sauce over and garnish with fresh parsley!
Three things, and they are all in this recipe. The meat first: beef and pork in equal parts, never beef on its own. Then the spicing, which sits in a warm sweet register rather than the garlic and oregano of an Italian meatball. In my version that job goes to Chinese five-spice and nutmeg, working the same angle as the allspice in the classic recipes. And the sauce above all: a white sauce built on a butter and flour roux and softened with sour cream, while an Italian meatball simmers in tomato. A small meatball in a pale gravy and a polpetta in red sauce are genuinely not the same dish.
Because I have never needed one. The panade of brown bread soaked in milk binds the mixture on its own and the result is more tender. Egg tightens the meat as it cooks, which is great in a meatloaf and less great in a small meatball you want soft. Mix it well with your hands for four or five minutes, roll your meatballs, and they will hold together fine in the pan.
Butter and flour cooked into a roux, then a full litre of beef broth, white wine and Dijon mustard whisked in and simmered until it thickens. Sour cream and fresh thyme go in at the end, off a hard boil, and that is what turns brown gravy into the creamy sauce people picture. No cornstarch, no cream of mushroom soup, no packet.
Both. The meatball mixture can be made a day ahead and kept in the fridge, and once the dish is cooked you have three to four days in an airtight container. As for the freezer, I recommend it. Fair warning: the sauce can split as it thaws and the texture will not be the prettiest. The flavour will still be really good. Reheat low and slow in a pan and hit it with a whisk if the sauce has separated.
Rice and roasted vegetables is my combination. The rice drinks up the sauce, which is rather the point when you have made a full litre of it, and roasted vegetables bring the contrast the plate otherwise lacks. My roasted garlic and maple carrots are an obvious match for the warm spice in the gravy. For something greener, my roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, mustard and maple syrup, or air fryer broccoli when time is short.
Ads
Ads
Ads
Ads
Ads