Although I get asked frequently if I’m Swedish, I am unfortunetly not despite my blonde locks and Scandinavian features. My husband on the other hand is very much so and since being with him has taught me a ton about the Swedish culture.

A timeless, easy Swedish dish I want to introduce you to (if you haven’t already) is their infamous Swedish Meatballs. I have made these a couple of times with my hubby in the last few years and I think that I am now confident enough to make them without his supervision. Although, when they’re made by an actual Swede they’re 10x better… I’m here to provide you with the Swedish way to make this addicting dish.

What You’ll Need:

• Lg Mixing Bowl
• Little Less than .5 (0.423) Cup of Bread Crumbs
• 2 Eggs
• 2/2.5 lbs Ground Beef
• 1 Jumbo White Onion
• 1 Stick of butter
• 1.5 Beef Bullion Cube
• Half n Half/Milk
• Salt
• Pepper
• Lingonberry Jam

MEATBALLS:

First, you’re going to finely chop your entire onion.

Then, take your mixing bowl and add your bread crumbs, 2 eggs, some onion (not all), salt and pepper. Nick usually just eyes his pepper, salt, and bread crumbs because he’s made these for more than half his life.

Next, you’re going to whisk these ingredients together and then add the beef and the rest of the onion.

Knead everything together. From there, you’ll start literally taking pinches of the mixed meat and rolling them into small balls. I tend to make them too big and have to redo a few. So keep that in mind while you’re making them, you don’t want them to be like Italian meatballs for your spaghetti. Much smaller.

As you’re doing this, begin heating up a large frying pan at a medium temperature and coat the bottom with margin butter (so healthy, I know..ha).

Once you have a decent amount rolled, check and see if the butter has turned brown. Once it has, throw ONE in and cook it. Do this so you can taste it and see if you’d like to add more seasoning. Once satisfied with their taste, throw those babies into the pan and begin cooking! I recommend covering the pan with a lid.

While that batch is cooking, start on rolling the next. Make sure to check on the ones cooking and toss them onto their other side.

After the first batch is complete, take them out and pour the leftover grease and onions into a cereal sized bowl of your choice. You’ll use this to make your sauce. Then, rebutter your pan.

Repeat this process until you have finished cooking all the meatballs.

SAUCE:

First, strain the grease of onions. Warm new sauce pan on low.

Then, add half and half.. Nick also just eyes this but I’d say 1-2 cups.

Start with one bouillon cube and mix that into the half and half/ grease mixture. Taste it and see if you like it or want to add another half to whole one.

Then add a little bit of flour (1-2 Tsp). Tip: Put the flour into a separate cup with a little bit off water and whisk to help prevent clumping. Then add it to the sauce while continuing mixing.

You can always add more if you want your sauce to be a little bit thicker. Or add more half and half to even out the thickness. Just be sure to continue mixing the sauce until all the flour clumps are nonexistent and sauce is desired thickness.

SERVE:

Now it’s time to dig in! The Swedish way is to pair the meatballs will Lingonberry sauce and potatoes. You could also pair it with noodles and drizzle some sauce on it. Or skip the carbs all together and eat with a veggie like green beans.

You can find Lingonberry sauce at Ikea and some grocery stores, but definitely Ikea.. Go figure! Or you can always count on Amazon.

We sometimes will freeze half of our meatballs, but usually we make them for special occasions like Christmas so they definitely get eaten. We hadn’t had them in a long time, so our special occasion was to simply just share with you all!

As always, if you make this dish, share your thoughts in the comments and tag me in your social media posts. You can find me at @youryoungmom

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

YYM