Swedish "Meatballs" Meat Sauce with Egg Noodles - The Spice Kit Recipes (2024)
· by Jenn @ The Spice Kit Recipes · 2 Comments
Swedish “meatballs” meat sauce with egg noodles is a delicious, quick, easy, inexpensive dinner and a nice change from the usual noodle, or Hamburger Helper routine.
Do you love meatballs but sometimes don’t feel like getting your hands all icky and taking the time to make them? Me too! I was recently having a random craving for Swedish Meatballs, which I’ve never made. I didn’t have a recipe of my own to reference so I did a Google search and a whole slew of recipes came up- they all looked so good! Which recipe do I choose?
I decided I wanted to do something Swedish Meatball-ish for the blog and, being the rebel I am, couldn’t conform to the standard Swedish Meatball recipe. I decided to kinda sorta deconstruct it- making a slightly different, easier, less messy, Swedish Bolognese, or dare I say, Swedish Hamburger Helper. Yikes!
Did I just say the “H.H.” words as in a meal from a box? Remember those? Maybe you still eat them. Nothing wrong with them. They’re certainly quick and get the job done, but they’re usually loaded with salt so we steer clear from the “helper” type purchases. Plus, we both like to cook so we’ll just make our own!
While this recipe looses the breadcrumbs and eggs, it still maintains the classic Swedish Meatball ingredients using ground pork and lean ground beef. I chose to use 90% lean ground beef because ground pork tends to be on the fattier side and I’m not a fan of really greasy, fatty meat. Ok. Sometimes I am, just not this time :).
I found the juices and grease that was leftover from browning the meat was a perfect base for making the delicious, creamy sauce. So to make up for my savings, I added 4 Tbsps. of butter. OK. So now I’m contradicting myself. It sounds like a lot, but this recipe should feed at least 4 people, so it’s not too bad. Right?
Whisk in the flour, broth, sour cream, allspice and nutmeg and you have a tasty, spicy, Scandinavian sauce to switch-up your usual dinner routine that is perfect for drowning egg noodles in. And since my daily to-do lists seem to be growing…. and growing…. that leaves me with less and less time for cooking and cleaning- which is bad…. and good. Adding the noodles in the sauce is a time and cleaning saver = SCORE! And voila! A delicious, comforting 1 pan meal. Hope you guys enjoy!
5 cups low sodium beef broth, divided ½ cup and 4½ cups
⅔ cup sour cream
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. each allspice, nutmeg, salt
Instructions
Heat oil in a large saute pan on medium heat. Add onion and saute about 5 minutes.
Add beef and pork and cook until browned, about 5-6 minutes. Use a potato masher to crumble the meat.
Sprinkle in salt and spices and mix to combine.
Using a large slotted spoon, transfer meat mixture to a plate leaving the juices in the pan.
In a measuring cup whisk together ½ cup broth with the sour cream until well combined and set aside.
Add butter and flour to the saute pan (the heat is still on medium) and whisk together until you get a smooth paste. Continue whisking for a minute or 2.
Turn off heat and whisk in the 4½ cups of beef broth stirring for about a minute. Now add the ½ cup broth mixed with the sour cream and continue whisking another minute until everything is well combined and smooth.
Whisk in sugar, salt and spices and increase heat to medium.
Add noodles and meat. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and simmer cooking 5-7 minutes until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.
The sauce for Swedish Meatballs is a creamy gravy that is made with butter, beef broth/stock, thickened with flour and made creamy with cream. But the most important flavour for the a really good creamy gravy is the pan drippings after searing the meatballs.
Eggs: Eggs help bind the meatballs together so they don't fall apart. They also help keep the meatballs soft and tender. Bread crumbs: Bread crumbs are almost always used in meatball recipes because they absorb the fat and, along with the eggs, serve as a binder.
While both varieties include ingredients such as grated onion and panade (milk-soaked bread) or bread crumbs, plus the usual salt and pepper, Swedish meatballs traditionally use spices like allspice, nutmeg, white pepper, and sometimes ground ginger as flavoring.
How to Thicken Swedish Meatball Sauce. The all-purpose flour in this recipe should do the trick to thicken your Swedish meatball sauce to the right consistency. But if it doesn't, you can add a cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon of cornstarch to 2 tablespoons of water) to thicken it up.
The major difference between Swedish and Italian meatballs is what they're accompanied with. Swedish meatballs are traditionally topped with a creamy gravy and served with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce to cut through the richness, similar to how they're cooked at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant, Aquavit.
You only need a small amount of egg – it's there only to help the cooked meatball retain its shape, and shouldn't detract from the meat's flavour or texture. Filler ingredients like breadcrumbs or flour are important too because they stop the meatballs becoming dry.
As the collagen in the meat dissolves over time, it transforms into gelatin, which not only adds a silky texture to the sauce but also contributes to the overall richness and depth of flavor. The longer the simmer, the more tender and succulent the meatballs become.
While they are all balls of meat, the ingredients, the meat mix, the spices (perhaps the biggest difference) and the way they are served and the sauces used for service are very different.
Swedish meatballs are quite small, at most about an inch in diameter. As mentioned above, They are usually served in a creamy gravy with lingonberry jam or Lingonberry Sauce and Fresh Pickled Cucumbers. Swedish meatballs are usually served on top of mashed potatoes or buttered egg noodles. Both are delicious!
Swedish meatballs, perhaps the country's most famous culinary item, are actually based on a recipe brought back from Turkey in the early 18th century by King Charles XII of Sweden. They are a part of both traditional holiday meals and a staple in everyday home cooking.
Adding raw meatballs to the sauce and gently simmering till cooked yields ultra-tender results, and infuses the sauce with meaty flavor—a slow cooker gives great results.
Chill your meatballs: refrigerating your meatballs an hour before cooking helps them hold their shape throughout the cooking process. They can chill in the fridge for up to 24 hours before cooking, making meatballs a great make-ahead dish, too.
Iconic Swedish cream sauce: Melt 40g of butter in a pan. Whisk in 40g of plain flour and stir for 2 mins. Add 300ml of bouillon (or consommé) and continue to stir. Add 150ml double cream, 2 tsp of soy sauce and 1 tsp of (Dijon) mustard.
Gravy – The traditional IKEA Swedish meatballs sauce is made with butter, flour, beef stock, and cream. I like to replace half of the beef stock with vegetable stock, then add in soy sauce and Dijon mustard for extra flavor!
Swedish meatballs are quite small, at most about an inch in diameter. As mentioned above, They are usually served in a creamy gravy with lingonberry jam or Lingonberry Sauce and Fresh Pickled Cucumbers. Swedish meatballs are usually served on top of mashed potatoes or buttered egg noodles. Both are delicious!
Flavored with nutmeg and cardamom, these little beef-and-pork meatballs are best served with a Swedish meatball sauce—a rich roux-based and beef stock gravy, spiked with sour cream and a little lingonberry jelly.
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