Swedish Meatballs

This easy Swedish Meatballs recipe includes homemade meatballs smothered in creamy sauce and served over egg noodles or rice. This is a meal the whole family will love!

Courtesy of Lauren Allen

Why I Love This Meal:

• Pantry Ingredients – The perfect budget friendly meal that requires basic ingredients you may already have on hand.
• From Scratch – The homemade meatballs and sauce are what really set this recipe apart, and they’re both very easy to make.
• Easy enough that the kids could even make this one.

What are Swedish Meatballs?

From what I’ve read, Swedish Meatballs were brought into Sweden by a King Charles XII, who got the recipe from Turkey. They originated in ancient Persia (Iran) and is called “koofteh” or “koofteh ghelgheli” which means a round meat in Persian. This recipe for homemade Swedish Meatballs is served with a creamy sauce, similar to the recipe found in Ikea.

Italian Meatballs vs Swedish Meatballs: Swedish Meatballs are typically smaller in size than Italian meatballs and they are usually made with a 50-50 ratio of ground pork and ground beef.  Swedish Meatballs also tend to use spices like allspice and nutmeg for flavoring where Italian meatballs rely more on parmesan and garlic flavoring.

How to make Swedish Meatballs:

Make the Meatballs: combine ground beef, ground pork, bread crumbs, egg yolk, allspice, nutmeg, and sautéed onion.  Season with salt and pepper. Roll the mixture into meatballs about 1 inch in size.