While meatballs have been around forever, the first written documentation of meatballs in Sweden appeared in the 18th century. Meatballs were likely an uncommon food in Sweden until the widespread use of meat-grinders; they later became standard Smörgåsbord (the original buffet!) fare. Scandinavian immigrants brought their meatballs to the United States, particularly the Midwest, during the 1920s. Swedish meatballs are unique in that they are pretty small and often served with a cream-based gravy.
Most Swedish meatballs are made using breadcrumbs (even IKEA’s!) so I set off to make a gluten-free version of the classic dish. It was surprisingly easy, with almond meal, cream, and egg yolk making a pretty hefty binder. I also found that in making the gravy, regular white rice flour (not sweet rice flour) created the best consistency.
You’ll Need:
For the meatballs -
1/2 lb each ground beef and ground pork
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 onion, blended
1 egg yolk
1 dash each ground nutmeg, all spice, salt, and pepper
2 tbsp butter
For the sauce -
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp white rice flour (not to be confused with Mochiko, or sweet rice flour)
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 tbsp honey
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup heavy cream
Measure out your meatball ingredients and set them aside.
In a sauté pan, melt 1 tbsp butter on medium heat, then add the blended onion. Sauté for about 2 minutes. This process is called “sweating”, which will reduce the overwhelmingly onion taste in the meatballs. Scoop the onions into a mixing bowl to cool, spreading them around to speed up the cooling process. Should take a few minutes.
After the onions have cooled, add the remaining meatball ingredients and mix thoroughly with your hands.
Roll the meat into 1″ balls. It’s pretty fun.
In a skillet, warm another 1 tbsp of butter on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add half of the meatballs and sauté until cooked through, turning every few minutes.
It should take about 8-10 minutes to cook the meatballs.
Once the first batch is done, place them in a bowl and put them in the oven at 170 degrees while you cook the other half of the meatballs. Add more butter for the second batch if needed. When the second batch is ready, add them to the bowl with the first batch to keep warm as you prepare the sauce.
Melt 1 tbsp of butter in the skillet, then add the white rice flour and stir together. Toast the rice flour for a minute or two, until it starts to turn a little golden.
Stir in the beef broth, honey, and bay leaf, and simmer for a few minutes. Scrape up any remaining gunk from when you were cooking the meatballs and mix it into the sauce, which will start to thicken as it simmers. Finally, add the cream and simmer for another couple of minutes, then remove from heat. Stir the meatballs into the sauce, until they are well-coated.
That’s it! Serve immediately with traditional Swedish sides like boiled potatoes, pickles, and lingonberry jam.
These look DELICIOUS. I like the idea of blending the onion, as this blends it better and helps to bind. I look forward to trying these!
Thanks Buttoni, let me know how you like them!
Early on in my Paleo days, I decided getting the meatballs at IKEA would be worth it (they’re not). I felt like crap the rest of the day. I have most of the ingredients and can make them tonight. Score! I don’t have rice flour so I’ll probably skip that and just add an arrowroot slurry at the end. Thanks so much for posting this!
Amelia, I did the same thing myself at IKEA…hence this recipe :)
Looks great. I’ve only had these at Ikea and not sure if they are authentic or corporate.
The IKEA meatballs are pretty dang close to the real thing – especially the slight twinge of sweetness to the gravy (that’s why I added a little honey).
Any idea if it’s possible to eliminate dairy entirely? I can’t handle the dairy, so I’m thinking of maybe using almond milk instead. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Will, you could probably pull this dish off without dairy. Maybe use a couple tbsp of almond milk or coconut milk and an extra egg yolk as a binder for the meatballs, sub the butter with olive oil, and maybe add a bit of coconut milk to the gravy at the end instead of heavy cream. Let me know how it goes!
I listened to you ,I tried the dairy-free version: just fantastic! Thank you a lot!
Wow, that was fast! Glad to hear it turned out!
Yes ,I had all the ingrediente at hand ! Lol
These look awesome!!! I had the IKEA meatballs once, and they were pretty tasty to me at the time, so I can only imagine how amazing your version is. : )
the meatballs look so good, I love the way you add the gravy sauce to them ^^
oh these look amazing. As soon as the next beef delivery comes I am making these!
Made these tonight and they were great! I used all beef and I didn’t have heavy cream so I used a non dairy whipped topping (natural version of Cool Whip) and a little milk. I will be making them again!
Would either brown rice flour or sweet rice flour work in place of the white rice flour? I hate to go buy another ingredient that I will probably only use in this one recipe. I do also have arrowroot flour or cornstarch.
Jennifer, brown rice flour should work fine – I would avoid using sweet rice flour as a thickener, it doesn’t work very well.
I did everything as you suggested…used the brown rice flour instead of white rice flour though. the only thing I did differently was to bake the meatballs for almost 20 minutes in the oven at 375 and then browned them a little in the skillet to save time and make things easier. They were TERRIFIC. Everyone loved them! thanks, for the recipe, Russ!
Glad it turned out! :)
Kottbullar are a Christmas tradition in my family. I am excited to have a paleo friendly recipe for next year, and these look delicious! Tack!