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Swedish Meatballs are a favorite, and best of all, they’re easy to make.
Tender homemade meatballs are simmered in a savory cream sauce for a weeknight favorite. Serve it over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.
An Easy Weeknight Meal
- They make a delicious main dish over potatoes, noodles, or rice; kids love them!
- Use homemade or frozen meatballs.
- Add mushrooms, onions, or sour cream if you’d like.
Ingredients in Swedish Meatballs
Meatballs – Meatballs made with ground beef and pork have great flavor, but you can use all ground beef if you prefer. Choose lean beef (not extra lean) for the best flavor. Frozen meatballs can be used in place of homemade. Traditional Swedish meatballs have some warm spices in the meat mixture, as I’ve added in the recipe below.
Swedish Meatball Sauce—This sauce is simple. It’s made from a mixture of beef stock and heavy cream thickened with a bit of flour. Soy sauce is frequently added to a traditional Swedish meatball sauce, it adds salt and umami (savory flavor).
Variations
- If you want to add onion, cook ½ finely diced onion in the butter before adding the flour.
- Some or all of the heavy cream can be replaced with sour cream but the flavor will be more similar to a stroganoff.
- If you use beef broth instead of beef stock, you may need to add a bouillon cube, as the flavor may be lighter.
How to Make Swedish Meatballs
These all-purpose meatballs come out juicy and tender every time!
- Combine the meatball ingredients in a bowl and form meatballs (recipe below).
- Brown the meatballs in a large skillet and set aside.
- Cook butter and flour. Whisk in broth and cream smooth. Season and simmer meatballs in the sauce until cooked through.
Swedish meatballs are served with lingonberry jam, which has a flavor similar to cranberry sauce.
Serving Suggestions
Move over Ikea – homemade Swedish meatballs are easy to make! We love to serve this dish over a bed of egg noodles but they’re great spooned over rice or mashed potatoes too.
Storing Swedish Meatballs
- The meatballs can be assembled up to 48 hours in advance or frozen until they’re ready to use.
- Store leftover meatballs and sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat them in the microwave or on the stovetop, adding a little water if needed.
Did you enjoy this Swedish Meatball recipe? If so, leave a rating and a comment below!
Swedish Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- ½ pound ground pork or additional ground beef
- ½ cup bread crumbs or Panko bread crumbs
- 1 large egg beaten
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/16 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch ground cloves
For the Sauce
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper or finely ground black pepper
- 2 cups beef stock *
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- chopped fresh parsley for garnish, optional
Instructions
- To make the meatballs, in a large bowl, combine beef, pork, bread crumbs, egg, milk, salt, pepper, allspice, nutmeg, and clove. Mix well and roll into 1-inch meatballs (About 45-48 meatballs).
- Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add the meatballs and brown on all sides. Transfer the meatballs to a plate.
- To make the sauce, add the butter to the drippings in the skillet. Stir in the flour and pepper. Cook for 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in the broth and cream, stirring until smooth after each addition. Add the soy sauce.
- Add the meatballs to the sauce and bring to a simmer over medium low heat. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and simmer for 5-10 minutes more or until thickened and the meatballs are cooked through. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve over egg noodles or mashed potatoes. Garnish with parsley if desired.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Main Course
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Great recipe
Wanted to try this before preparing it as a dish for a friend’s meal train. Wow! Super easy to prepare, and family gave it a thumbs up!
I might substitute Dale’s steak seasoning for the soy sauce next time. Thanks for the recipe!
As a quick weeknight meal this is very good. I have to say I will stick with the traditional Swedish meatball recipes out there – soy sauce doesn’t belong in this dish.
Thanks for trying our recipe, KLM! I am glad you enjoyed it.
this was the best recipe I have ever made its going in my little book of favorites. thank you
If I want to serve this over the egg noodles, should I just double up the sauce?
It should be fine as is, but if you like it extra saucy you can double the sauce.
This is a quick, easy, versatile, delicious, and forgiving recipe! I didn’t measure anything. I used half and half, and made extra gravy. I sent this recipe to people I know.
I’m so glad you loved it Melissa—thank you for sharing the recipe with others!
delicious
Easy to make and a crowd pleaser. I just saw a link for your air fryer meatballs, I’ll try that route next time I make this meal!
Tried to print this recipie, was not going to print 8 pages of nonsense!!! Put a printable button somewhere to print out on 1 page. Why does everything have to be so difficult?
Hi Ann, you can use the print button right above the recipe—you can get to the recipe quickly by clicking jump to recipe. Hope that helps!
bbrill
Thanks, Kevin! I am glad you enjoyed it.
These Swedish meatballs are divine. My husband loves them (and so do I)!
This was a winner with my picky eaters
I am so glad to hear that this was a winner for your family too!
I actually make this in the crockpot. My family asks for it over and over!
Thanks for trying our recipe, Donna!
I plan on trying this tonight and eager to see if it’s as good as my old recipe. I’ll come back and let you know :-)
One question though: In the notes it says, “if you replace beef broth with beef stock….”. Since the recipe says to use beef stock shouldn’t the note read…”if you replace beef stock with beef broth….”?
Thanks for providing wonderful recipes!!
Hi Carol, I hope you enjoyed them! Thanks for pointing that out.
Surprisingly neither my husband or I had ever had Swedish meatballs so it was a fun delicious dinner. I love cooking new things. I made it as written. It was a fairly fast dinner aside from peeling potatoes for it to go on.
So glad you enjoyed them, Janie!
Made these tonight using frozen home style meatballs. They were so yummy and easy to make. Definitely going into the rotation!!
So glad you loved this recipe Jaime!
Thankyou
What size bag of frozen meatballs is best to use for the amount of gravy in this recipe? Thank you.
Hi Gina, this recipe makes about 45-48 meatballs. So a bag with roughly that many should work well with this amount of gravy.
10
Thank you, Sylvia! I am glad you enjoyed it.
Sounds simple, normal ingredients and I’m going to find out just how tasty it is.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we did, Frank!