Ikea-like meatballs with gravy. How to cook Swedish meatballs like in ikea

Meatballs are perhaps one of the most appealing everyday foods. There are many varieties of them. Small, round, cute - meatballs will always come to the table. Usually there is no trouble with them, besides, they are convenient to keep in reserve in the freezer. Meatballs are unpretentious and are not afraid of neighborhood with a wide variety of products. They do equally well in an Indian curry, on the same plate with eggplant and garlic, side by side with thick hummus. Meatballs are traditionally eaten in Sweden with mild cream sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet lingonberries and sour pickled gherkins. We can say that the meatball is a kind of chameleon that goes well with various tastes and aromas. The meatball has two cousins: chicken and vegetable meatballs. We will share their recipes too. We hope that our recipes will inspire you on a journey into the world of amazing tastes. And remember: with a meatball, everything will be in perfect order!

Swedish plate of meatballs

You will need for 30-40 meatballs:

250 g ground beef

250 g minced pork

200 ml cream

2.5 tbsp finely chopped onion

50 g breadcrumbs

2 boiled potatoes

4-5 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil (you can use a mixture of oils)

salt, white pepper and allspice

For cream sauce:

100 ml cream

200 ml beef broth

1 tbsp wheat flour

salt, white pepper

For pickled cucumbers:

2-3 fresh cucumbers

3 art. l. white wine vinegar

100 ml warm water

1 st. l. Sahara

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp chopped parsley

For submission:

600 g mashed potatoes

200 g lingonberry jam

Fry the onion until golden brown, melting 2 tbsp. butter, mash potatoes. Mix the breadcrumbs with a little water. Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl and knead the minced meat, season generously with salt, white pepper and (optional) allspice.

Using two spoons dipped in water, make fairly large round balls of minced meat, transfer them to a floured board, then fry in a large amount of butter.

For a creamy sauce, pour the meat broth into the pan where the meatballs were fried, then pour it into a saucepan and dilute with cream. Heat the sauce while stirring, add the flour to thicken it and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut cucumbers into slices. Combine vinegar, water, sugar in a bowl and stir until sugar and salt are dissolved. Put the chopped cucumbers in the marinade and leave until the moment of serving. Before serving, drain the marinade, and mix the cucumbers with chopped parsley.

Serve meatballs with mashed potatoes, cream sauce, pickled cucumbers and a spoonful of cranberries.

Tip: The taste of potatoes will be brighter if you add grated cheese, chopped champagne and chopped parsley to it.

Cooking meatballs for the future!

Fried meatballs can be chilled and frozen in a container or in a ziplock bag. Cook the prepared meatballs from the freezer in an oven preheated to 180C on the middle shelf for about 20 minutes.

By the way

Ready-made meatballs, lingonberry jam, cream sauce can be purchased at IKEA (Swedish products store)

Recipes from the books "All to the table" 2016, "Real cookbook from IKEA" 2006

Photo: StockFood / Huerta, Anna David Johansson

Today, Russians associate the Swedish brand IKEA not only with interior items, but also with unusual Scandinavian food, which you can taste in the local restaurant or bistro. Some people find the taste of Sweden strange, and that's okay. And someone falls in love with Scandinavian dishes from the first bite!

It happens that you sit at home and so want meatballs like in IKEA, but only all 14 chain stores that are currently open in Russia are located on the outskirts of cities, and therefore getting there is not always convenient. Basically, don't go out for lunch. Therefore, we have prepared for you 4 traditional Swedish meatball recipes that you can cook yourself at home, and then taste at an IKEA restaurant or bistro and compare.

Recipe for meatballs like in IKEA: ingredients and cooking method

So, before we start cooking dishes with IKEA meatballs, we need to learn how to make meatballs ourselves according to a traditional Scandinavian recipe. You can buy all products in a regular supermarket near the house and it is not necessary to go to a Swedish grocery store.

So, for 4 servings (about 30-40 meatballs) you will need:

• Ground beef - 250 g
• Minced pork - 250 g
• Egg - 1 pc.
• Cream (milk) and water - 200-300 ml
• Onion (thinly chopped) - 2.5 tbsp
• Breadcrumbs (unsweetened) - 50 ml + 100 g for deboning
• Potatoes (boiled) - 2 pcs.
• Vegetable oil - 4-5 tbsp. for frying
• Salt, pepper - to taste

Cooking Meatballs:

1. Fry the onion until golden brown with two tablespoons of butter. Mash the potatoes with a fork and add the egg to it. Moisten the breadcrumbs lightly with water (milk, cream).
2. Now, in a large bowl, combine minced meat, potatoes, onions and breadcrumbs, sprinkle generously with salt, add pepper (white and allspice, if desired). Knead the minced meat with your hands so that it becomes plastic.
3. Make round meatballs from minced meat and roll them in breadcrumbs, and then fry over low heat in plenty of oil.

So, the meatballs are ready! The dish can already be consumed with any side dish. But we want meatballs like in IKEA, so we need to take care of the appropriate sauce and side dish. Well, let's move on?

Meatballs with cream sauce are the most popular among IKEA catering visitors, some also call them meatballs with gravy. Well, preparing such a dish is very simple, especially if you have already made the meatballs, and if you haven’t yet, then you will find the recipe for IKEA meat meatballs above.

For the cream sauce for 4 servings you will need:

• Cream - 100 ml
• Water or beef broth - 200 ml
• Soy sauce - optional
• Flour - 1 tbsp.
• Salt, white pepper - to taste

Preparing the sauce:

1. Bring the beef broth (water) to a boil in a saucepan. Then strain the broth and add the cream.
2. If the sauce is too thin, add flour to it. Salt, pepper.
3. Meatballs with sour cream sauce should be served with fresh boiled potatoes, lingonberry jam, green lettuce and salted or pickled gherkins.

lingonberry jam You can buy it at the IKEA Swedish grocery store, or you can cook it yourself. For jam, you will need fresh or frozen lingonberries, sugar (at the rate of 600-800 g of sugar per 1 kg of lingonberries), water and pepper (for spiciness, but you can skip it). Place lingonberries in a saucepan, add water, sugar and pepper. Then all this mixture is put on medium heat, brought to a boil, and then continue to boil until the state of the sauce. Cowberry jam like in IKEA is ready! Bon appetit!

Many people cannot imagine Swedish meatballs without a creamy sauce. But this traditional dish can be just as delicious in other ways. Here, for example, is a great recipe for serving meatballs in sour cream sauce with beets baked in salt - perfect for a winter dinner.

• Meatballs - 40 pcs.
• Beets - 500 g (5-6 pieces of medium size),
• Salt (coarse) - about 1000 g
• Wine vinegar - 2 tbsp.
• Black pepper - to taste
• Olive oil - 2 tbsp. + some oil for dressing
• Red onion - 8 pcs. medium size
• Vegetable oil - for frying
• Greens (finely chopped) - 100 ml
• Sour cream - 200 g

Cooking:

1. Prepare meatballs. If you wish, you can buy ready-made in the store of Swedish products.
2. Rinse beets well with water. Prepare a baking dish, put the beets in it and sprinkle with salt. Bake for about 40 minutes until tender, then remove the beets from the oven, let cool and remove the skin. Cut the peeled beets into quarters, sprinkle with vinegar and olive oil, pepper if desired and put in a warm place.
3. While the beets are cooking, we'll take care of the rest. Cut the onion in half. Please note that you need to cut along, not across. Fry the onion halves in oil, placing them skin side down in the pan. Fry over medium heat until done. Salt at the very end.
4. Prepare sour cream sauce: mix chopped herbs with sour cream and salt to taste.
5. Now the final stage remains. Peel the fried onion halves, and put on a plate with meatballs and beets
6. Serve the dish with sour cream sauce, lightly sprinkling the contents of the plate with olive oil.

Meatballs with fried red onion, salt-baked beets and sour cream sauce are ready! Bon appetit!

You can serve meatballs not only with creamy sauce. The Swedes love to diversify this dish, so they come up with various sauces and side dishes. Now we will cook meatballs with beets and horseradish.

For 4 servings you will need:

• Meatballs - 20 pcs.
• Beets - 200 g (2-3 pcs.)
• Butter
• Multigrain bread - 4 slices
• Sour cream - 4 tbsp. spoons of sour cream;
• Horseradish root - 2 cm

Cooking:

1. Boil the beets in their skins in lightly salted water. Boiled beets need to cool and remove the peel.
2. Brush multi-grain bread slices generously with butter.
3. Cut the finished meatballs into slices and put on bread. Attention, before cutting, meatballs must be cooled!
4. Now let's get to the beetroot-sour cream sauce. Cut the beets into slices and place in a separate bowl. Add sour cream, salt, pepper and stir. Spread this sauce over the meatballs.
5. Sprinkle finished sandwiches on top with grated fresh horseradish and you can serve!

The dish is ready! You can invite guests or family to the table and enjoy your meal, or as they say in Sweden, Bon appetit!

The cold Scandinavian winters last a long time, and during this period the human body needs vitamins most urgently. However, do we, the inhabitants of the country, 30% of whose territory is located in the permafrost zone, not know this! So the Swedes use curly kale as a source of vitamins in winter. Now we will cook meatballs in mustard glaze with cabbage chips and lingonberry sauce.

For 4 servings you will need:

• Meatballs - 20 pcs.
• Kale - 5-6 large whole leaves
• Olive oil - ½ tbsp
• Onion powder - 1 tsp
• Salt (fine) - ½ tsp
• Rapeseed oil - 2 tbsp.

For lingonberry sauce:

• Red onion - 2 pcs
• Butter - 50 g
• – 400 g

For glaze:

• Honey - 100 ml
• Mustard (coarse-grained) - 100 ml
• Dijon mustard - 2 tablespoons
• Vinegar (white) - 1.5 tbsp.
• Salt, pepper - to taste

Cooking:

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees.
2. In cabbage leaves, remove hard petioles, and tear the rest into large pieces, about 5-6 cm long. Rinse the leaves thoroughly and dry them dry. Pour the olive oil into a separate plate and blot the cabbage slices well on each side. The oil should cover the leaf evenly on each side, but it should not drip off the leaf, so the leaves will need to be wrung out.
3. Sprinkle dressed cabbage with onion powder, salt and squeeze again.
4. Now let's make cabbage chips. To do this, lay the cabbage leaves in an even layer on a baking sheet and place in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. Then turn the pan around the other side and continue to bake for another 12-15 minutes, until the cabbage turns into crispy slices. After that, remove the baking sheet from the oven and let it cool so that the cabbage is completely dry.
5. Cooking lingonberry sauce: Peel the red onion, finely chop and fry in butter over medium heat. When the onion is caramelized, add the lingonberry jam and bring the mixture to a boil. Remove sauce from heat and cover to keep warm.
6. You can buy lingonberry jam at the Swedish Food store, or you can make it yourself.
7. Prepare the frosting: Place all of the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan. Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until thickened. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. Set the oven temperature to 175 degrees. Dip cooked meatballs in butter and place on a baking sheet. Send to oven until golden brown. As soon as a crust has appeared, remove the baking sheet from the oven, pour the meatballs on top well with the icing prepared in step 7. Set the temperature in the oven to 250 degrees and send the meatballs in caramel for another 5-6 minutes. Readiness can be determined by the golden color of the glaze.
9. Now the matter remains small: put the cabbage chips on a dish. Place a glazed meatball on top of each chip. Serve the dish with lingonberry sauce.

Well, that's it, a great Swedish appetizer with meatballs is ready! Ideal for a festive table or as an aperitif.

Delicious Swedish meatballs with creamy sauce and sweet jam have become popular thanks to the IKEA chain of stores, where this dish has long been in great demand. Small meat balls are very juicy, fragrant and incredibly tasty! And a plentiful amount of tender gravy and a non-standard addition in the form of berry jam make the dish even more interesting and appetizing!

You can cook the famous Swedish meatballs like in Ikea at home. To do this, we need two types of minced meat, cream, meat broth and some more simple, quite affordable products. You can buy ready-made jam for serving the dish or make it yourself, following our recipe.

Ingredients:

• ground beef - 300 g;
• minced pork - 300 g;
• onion - 2 small heads;
• egg - 1 pc.;
• stale loaf or breadcrumbs - 50 g;
• cream 10-20% or milk - 50-100 ml;
• boiled potatoes - 2 small pieces;
• garlic - 1-2 teeth;
• salt, allspice - to taste;
• vegetable oil - 2-3 tbsp. spoons;
• butter - 4-5 tbsp. spoons.

For sauce:

• cream 20% - 150 ml;
• meat broth - 300 ml;
• flour - 30 g;
• butter - 50 g;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

For jam (optional):

• lingonberries (can be replaced with cranberries) - 100 g;
• sugar - 40-50 g.

How to cook Swedish meatballs like in Ikea at home

1. We moisten a stale loaf with cream or milk (after cutting off the crusts) or breadcrumbs.
   
2. Finely chop the onions, fry in butter (2-3 tablespoons) until soft and golden.
   
3. We mix two types of minced meat, add fried onion, egg, garlic squeezed through a press. We knead the loaf moistened with cream with our hands and also load it into the meat mass, mix thoroughly.
   
4. We clean the cooled boiled potatoes, turn them into a homogeneous puree with a crush and add to the minced meat. The taste of potatoes in the finished meatballs will not be felt - it is used to obtain a more delicate texture. Salt the meat mass, season with ground allspice, mix.
   
5. We sculpt small round blanks (it will turn out about 30-35 pieces). Before forming the meatballs, it is advisable to keep the minced meat in the refrigerator for 40 minutes so that the meat balls keep their shape better and do not fall apart when frying.
   
6. Heat a mixture of vegetable and butter in a frying pan. Fry the meatballs over high heat on all sides until browned. It is necessary to fry the meat balls in small portions (in 2-3 runs). If you lay out all the blanks at once, the meatballs will release juice and will be stewed instead of frying.
   
7. Put the fried meat balls on a baking sheet and bring to readiness in a preheated oven at a temperature of 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
   

   Creamy sauce for swedish meatballs like Ikea

8. Melt butter over medium heat. Add the sifted flour, quickly and very carefully stir. Gradually add the beef broth while continuing to stir the sauce.
   
9. Next, pour in the cream in the same way (gradually and with continuous stirring). Creamy sauce for Swedish meatballs should not be too thick, flowing freely from a spoon. You can add more broth if needed. Salt the finished sauce, pepper to taste.
   

   How to make jam for swedish meatballs

10. At Ikea, Swedish meatballs are served with jam. To prepare it, you need lingonberries, but since it is not very easy to find this berry on sale, fresh or frozen cranberries are suitable as a substitute. We fill the berry with sugar, add 3 tablespoons of water, bring to a boil.
    
11. Crush the cranberries with a crush, cook the mixture over low heat until lightly thickened. Cool down.
    
12. Serve Swedish meatballs with berry jam and hot cream sauce. Boiled potatoes or mixed vegetables are great as a side dish.
    

Bon appetit!

Meatballs are perhaps one of the most appealing everyday foods. There are many varieties of them. Small, round, cute - meatballs will always come to the table. Usually there is no trouble with them, besides, they are convenient to keep in reserve in the freezer. Meatballs are unpretentious and are not afraid of neighborhood with a wide variety of products. They do equally well in an Indian curry, on the same plate with eggplant and garlic, side by side with thick hummus. Meatballs are traditionally eaten in Sweden with mild cream sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet lingonberries and sour pickled gherkins. We can say that the meatball is a kind of chameleon that goes well with various tastes and aromas. The meatball has two cousins: chicken and vegetable meatballs. We will share their recipes too. We hope that our recipes will inspire you on a journey into the world of amazing tastes. And remember: with a meatball, everything will be in perfect order!

Swedish plate of meatballs

You will need for 30-40 meatballs:

250 g ground beef

250 g minced pork

200 ml cream

2.5 tbsp finely chopped onion

50 g breadcrumbs

2 boiled potatoes

4-5 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil (you can use a mixture of oils)

salt, white pepper and allspice

For cream sauce:

100 ml cream

200 ml beef broth

1 tbsp wheat flour

salt, white pepper

For pickled cucumbers:

2-3 fresh cucumbers

3 art. l. white wine vinegar

100 ml warm water

1 st. l. Sahara

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp chopped parsley

For submission:

600 g mashed potatoes

200 g lingonberry jam

Fry the onion until golden brown, melting 2 tbsp. butter, mash potatoes. Mix the breadcrumbs with a little water. Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl and knead the minced meat, season generously with salt, white pepper and (optional) allspice.

Using two spoons dipped in water, make fairly large round balls of minced meat, transfer them to a floured board, then fry in a large amount of butter.

For a creamy sauce, pour the meat broth into the pan where the meatballs were fried, then pour it into a saucepan and dilute with cream. Heat the sauce while stirring, add the flour to thicken it and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut cucumbers into slices. Combine vinegar, water, sugar in a bowl and stir until sugar and salt are dissolved. Put the chopped cucumbers in the marinade and leave until the moment of serving. Before serving, drain the marinade, and mix the cucumbers with chopped parsley.

Serve meatballs with mashed potatoes, cream sauce, pickled cucumbers and a spoonful of cranberries.

Tip: The taste of potatoes will be brighter if you add grated cheese, chopped champagne and chopped parsley to it.

Cooking meatballs for the future!

Fried meatballs can be chilled and frozen in a container or in a ziplock bag. Cook the prepared meatballs from the freezer in an oven preheated to 180C on the middle shelf for about 20 minutes.

By the way

Ready-made meatballs, lingonberry jam, cream sauce can be purchased at IKEA (Swedish products store)

Recipes from the books "All to the table" 2016, "Real cookbook from IKEA" 2006

Photo: StockFood / Huerta, Anna David Johansson

Perhaps on one of your visits to the Ikea store you had to look into their signature restaurant. For many years now, meatballs - meat balls with french fries and lingonberry parfait (jam) have been considered the establishment's signature dish.

Thank you neighbors

Since Finland is territorially close to Sweden, the meatballs were to the taste of the local population of the country of lakes. And if you ask the Finns to name their traditional dishes, then among others you will definitely hear Lihapullat kermakastikkeessa, that is, meat balls with cream sauce.

The main difference of the Swedish version is the addition of a mixture of spices, including rosemary, paprika and cinnamon. But the key role in the fragrant set is played by the last component - it is he who is so clearly felt in the meatballs.

Cooking Ikea's signature dish: meat balls with lingonberry jam

The recipe for meatballs like in Ikea consists of 4 steps:

1. Ground meat. To prepare it, soak 3 slices (without crusts) of white bread in 200 g of milk. After half an hour, add to it 500 g of minced pork and beef, two yolks and a finely chopped red onion. Season with 2 tsp. fragrant and 1 tsp. black pepper. Mix and form meat semi-finished products the size of a walnut.
2. Meatballs. Heat up in a thick-bottomed pan 2 tbsp. l. margarine or butter, pour in a little olive oil and fry the semi-finished meat until a thin crust. It is not necessary that the meatballs are well fried - they will reach readiness in the next step. Put the balls in a saucepan or dish with thick high sides.
3. Sauce. Take a clean frying pan, add a spoonful of flour and pour in 3 tbsp. l. butter. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a golden hue. Lower the heat and pour in two cups of boiled hot water. Stir. Switch to medium heat, add a glass of sour cream, salt to taste and mix again.
4. Extinguishing. Transfer the fried meatballs to the sauce or, conversely, pour the thick mixture over the meat balls. Close the lid and cook for 10-15 minutes over low heat.

Serve hot with any side dish. But do not forget to put lingonberry jam / jam or a berry grated with sugar on the edge of the plate.

Recipe for meatballs "Like in Ikea" (with photo)

In May 2015, a new vegetarian version of the legendary dish appeared in all domestic stores of the Swedish brand. The idea to pay attention to healthy food arose in response to the consumer demand of modern society. Therefore, as an alternative, the menu of Ikea brand restaurants has been replenished with "vegadelki".

Ikea's recipe for vegetable meatballs is designed to be made with local produce. Therefore, the composition of the dish included corn, canned beans, peas, sweet red peppers, chickpeas, carrots, cabbage and seasonings.

For everyone who wants to learn how to cook the signature dish of the Swedish brand, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the step-by-step recipe for Ikea meatballs in the vegetable-based oven:

1. In a large, deep skillet over medium heat, heat a tablespoon of olive oil.
2. Fry the chopped onion and 4 minced garlic.
3. After 5 minutes, add to them half a glass of chopped sweet red pepper and cabbage leaves, 0.5 cups of canned corn, mix. Cover and cook until firm vegetables soften.
4. Grind half a cup of sunflower seeds until coarse. Add to the skillet along with half a can of canned red beans. Season with spices: 2 tsp. oregano and basil. Grind until all ingredients are completely combined.
5. Add one cup of brown rice and the remaining canned beans to the vegetable puree. Roll the mixture into balls.
6. Cover a baking sheet with foil, put vegetable meatballs (vegadelki) and bake for half an hour at 180 o C.

Meat balls in curry sauce

The recipe for meatballs "Like in Ikea" proposed below was included in the brand's cookbook and is prepared from a frozen semi-finished product.

Step by step workflow:

1. To make Swedish meatballs in curry sauce, first peel one large onion.
2. Defrost a 500g pack of Kottbullar meatballs in the microwave;
3. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a cauldron or wok pan and fry the prepared onion in it until soft.
4. Season the previous ingredient with 2 tbsp. l. (with a slide) curry powder and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Continue frying for one minute.
5. Rinse and halve the hot red pepper, remembering to remove the seeds. Cut it into strips and send it to the pan with the rest of the ingredients.
6. Soak 3 tablespoons of raisins in warm water.
7. Pour 400 ml of milk (preferably coconut) and 200 ml of meat broth into the pan;
8. Bring the mixture to a boil, throw in the prepared raisins and meatballs defrosted by this point.
9. Simmer until meatballs are done.
10. Sprinkle with chopped coriander or watercress before serving.

Cooking chicken skewers

Another simple IKEA meatball recipe included in the Swedish brand's cookbook.

Step by step process:

1. Start by defrosting a package of Kyckligbullar Chicken Meatballs with Cheese in the microwave. Spike warmed meatballs on 8 wooden skewers.
2. Pour the liquid from the pineapple jar into a shallow saucepan, bring to a boil.
3. Add a little soy sauce to taste, 4 full spoons of ketchup, 2 tbsp. l. vinegar (preferably apple and lingonberry from Appelvinager med lingon) and 25 g brown sugar.
4. Stir the mixture until all ingredients are combined, then add the pineapple chunks. Extinguish for a couple of minutes.
5. Pour the prepared sauce over the skewers and serve the dish hot. If desired, you can decorate it with a few stalks of chives or chopped green feathers.

Summing up

Kottbullar Ikea products are known all over the world. According to the classic Swedish recipe, Ikea meatballs are served with a creamy sauce, sour lingonberry jam/jam, and boiled potatoes as a side dish.

This dish is very popular in the Swedish brand's specialty restaurants. But, according to Ikea cooks, meat balls can be turned into a national dish of any kitchen. The main thing is to pour them with traditional sauce. And the dish is ready!