Tender Swedish Meatballs smothered in a rich and creamy gravy are the ultimate comfort food. Made with a blend of beef and pork and warm spices, this easy homemade version brings classic Swedish flavor straight to your dinner table.
Sharing this recipe for Swedish Meatballs was an adventure. From the journey in Sweden (not Ikea), to the table in Chicago, this is one dish that was a labor of love!
My Swedish Meatballs Journey
My family comes from Gotland, Sweden, when I visited Sweden I made it my mission to find truly great Swedish Meatballs. Instead of choosing a tourist spot, I asked a local where she would eat them, then came home inspired to recreate that experience in my own kitchen.
For my version, I use both beef and pork for extra flavor, allspice for that distinctive Swedish taste, and the meatball drippings to build a rich, creamy gravy. Serve them with mashed potatoes, cucumber salad, and lingonberries, and you’ve got the closest I’ve come to bringing that meal in Sweden back home.
What makes these Meatballs Authentic?
While Ikea meatballs and sauce are delicious, I had to do a little research on what makes the meatballs I ate in Sweden truly the best.
In my research for authentic meatballs, it turns out many places in Sweden add Allspice to the meatballs. It gives them a wonderful flavor note that makes these stand out from many of the meatballs I’ve eaten in the United States.
Swedish Meatball sauce is always creamy and rich, usually because of sour cream. This recipe gets all its creaminess from heavy cream.
Homemade Swedish Meatball Ingredients
- Meat- While I chose to combine ground beef and pork in my meatballs, you could also use all ground pork or all ground beef.
- Minced onion gives a tasty bite of flavor to these meatballs and breadcrumbs and egg hold everything together.
- For the sauce, be sure to use real heavy whipping cream. Milk or other substitutes will change the texture of the sauce leaving it thinner and less creamy.
- Beef broth adds rich flavor to the gravy.
- Allspice– to give them that authentic flavor!
How to Make Swedish Meatballs
Surprisingly, making meatballs in not complex.
- Mix breadcrumb ingredients. Use your hands to combine until thoroughly mixed.
- Roll into balls. Roll the meatball mixture into 1-inch balls with your hands, packing each one tightly. Continue until all the mixture is used. You should end up with about 75 meatballs.
- Cooking the meatballs. Heat a cast iron skillet to medium high heat. Add meatballs in a single layer and cook several minutes rotating to cook them evenly on all sides. Repeat until all the meatballs are cooked, then remove from the pan and set aside.
- Make the sauce. Use the drippings in the pan to help create depth of flavor in your sauce!
Once the sauce is thickened, return the meatballs to the large skillet and simmer until heated. This should only take a couple of minutes.
Aimee’s Best Tips
Freeze the cooked meatballs until ready to serve and make the sauce. Store in freezer safe airtight bag for up to 3 months.
Serving Suggestions
Serve your Swedish Meatballs the way the Swedes do! Sprinkle with parsley. Enjoy with mashed potatoes on the side.
I served our Swedish Meatballs just like they did in Sweden, with a side of creamy (pureed) potatoes, a Cucumber Dill Salad , and of course Lingonberries! If you can’t find lingonberries, our homemade cranberry sauce is a delicious substitute.
I even made an easy version of Instant Pot Swedish Meatballs for busy weeknights.
Egg noodles are also a delicious side instead of mashed potatoes.
More Easy Dinner Recipes
- Need a classic Meatloaf Recipe? This one turns out juicy and tender every time!
- Make this creamy dreamy Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe for your family this week!
- Crack Chicken is so addicting! Your whole family will love it and want some seconds!
- This crispy and flavorful Garlic Bread goes great with some Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo!
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Homemade Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 ½ pounds ground pork
- ½ cup minced onion 1 small white onion**see note below
- 1 cup plain breadcrumbs
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
For the sauce:
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups beef stock
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ⅔ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 Tablespoon parsley
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, minced onion, breadcrumbs, seasonings, eggs, and heavy cream. Using your hands, combine ingredients completely until thoroughly mixed.
- Roll mixture into 1-inch sized meatballs, packing tightly. Set aside until all the mixture is used. You should be able to make about 75 meatballs.
- Heat a large cast iron skillet on medium high heat. Add meatballs in a single layer with a little bit of space between each one. Cook several minutes then rotate the meatballs to cook evenly on all sides. Once cooked, remove meatballs onto a serving plate, and add more (I had to do about 3 rounds).
- Once all the meatballs are cooked, remove them all from the pan and add the butter for the sauce. Using a whisk, melt butter with the drippings in the pan. Sprinkle the flour over the melted butter and whisk over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add in the beef stock, salt, pepper, and allspice. Whisk until no lumps (except the possible meatball pieces from the pan). Turn heat down to low, add in the heavy cream, and simmer for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the sauce is thickened, return the meatballs to the skillet and simmer until heated (only takes a couple minutes).
- To serve, sprinkle with parsley. Enjoy with mashed potatoes!
Notes
- Minced onion is easy to do! Peel your small white onion, and using a grater (or zester) rub onion over the zester (over a bowl) until the entire onion is grated. It will be a mushy, watery mess…which is exactly what you want!
- Serve the meatballs over mashed potatoes or egg noodles.
- Store leftover meatballs and sauce in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- See blog post for more recipe tips and tricks.
Nutrition
Easy Dinner Recipes
Dinnertime doesn’t get any tastier than flavorful authentic Swedish Meatballs simmered in creamy sauce!
I was looking for an authentic Swedish meatballs recipe, and tried yours because the ingredient list looked very traditional, and also were the ones I had on hand. These were SO GOOD, my daughter’s little friend (7) ended up eating about 10 of them herself, despite insisting ahead of time that she doesn’t like meatballs. These were cozy and the perfect meal for all ages in the middle of a cold snap. It also felt like a plunge into another culture to eat them, as the flavor profile is so distinct. I forgot to bookmark the recipe yesterday and spent a good while sifting through recipes to relocate this so I can make it again
I’m so glad you enjoyed the meatballs. Enjoy many years of dinners with this one 🙂
So glad I found your recipe…..my mother is Swedish too! For me the allspice is what makes these taste right……..authentic. But, didn’t the older recipes use veal instead of pork? Or something else? I also enjoy bulgar pilaf as a side accompaniment..thank you!
Can we please get an approximate on how much minced onion to use for this recipe. Is it 1 cup or 1/2 cup?
I cannot find a small onion they are ALL huge.
I would go with about 1/2 cup.
You say drippings but I am not sure if it is grease and do I take out the grease or use it?
Swedish traditional recipe needs: 1) caramelize onion 2) day-old white bread, crumbled and NOT heavy cream but milk 10mins 3) You don’t have to use eggs.. it’s optional
looks like alot of meat and sauce how many does this make?
Very good. I like this recipe using cream better than sour cream.
I was excited to try this recipe to see how it compared to a recipe I had from years ago. This one exceeds my old recipe by a long shot. You must try it!
Will make this
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These Swedish meatballs come out better than IKEA’s! We all love them! Thank you for the easy recipe!
Meatballs are great, because we serve them with pasta or rice & my kids will eat them! These have incredible flavor!