Best Swedish Meatballs Simple & Easy Traditional Recipe (2024)

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This is hands down the best Swedish meatballs recipe you’ll find! Made the traditional way, these easy Swedish meatballs use ingredients you probably already have on hand!

Swedish meatballs recipe

When it comes to dinner recipes, I tend to favor the quick, fairly easy ones. However I don’t want to sacrifice flavor for convenience, I want the best of both worlds. This recipe for the best Swedish meatballs is just that! A thirty-ish minute meal perfect for hectic weeknights but so jam-packed with flavors everyone will love and rave about it.

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How to make Swedish meatballs

These meatballs are just like Italian meatballs, but they are softer and tender. The secret to making perfectly tender meatballs at home (and therefore making the best Swedish meatballs), is adding some bread soaked in milk to the mixture. I prefer to use day-old sandwich bread heavily soaked in milk until soft. The stale bread will retain all the moisture of you meatballs when cooking resulting is super tender and juicy little balls of meat.

Swedish meatballs sauce

The other thing that makes these simple meatballs different from any other meatball? The sauce! The Swedish sauce is basically a quick pan sauce made with the juices remaining from frying the meatballs, a bit of flour, some stock a teaspoon of mustard and a splash of heavy cream. That’s it! Simple and cozy.

I like to cook the meatballs in the sauce for a couple of minutes but that’s completely optional. In my opinion, meatballs get even more tender and juicy (and flavorful if that’s possible) when simmered with the sauce.

What to serve with Swedish meatballs

Simply put, they go great with everything! They are amazing over pasta, served with rice and even with a salad on the side. However, the most traditional way is to serve them with mashed potatoes or boiled potatoes. Swedes usually also serve the recipe with some lingonberry jam on the side.

Best Swedish Meatballs

To make these tasty Swedish meatballs you’ll need ground beef, bread, milk, egg, red onion, allspice, salt and pepper, olive oil, flour, beef and heavy cream.

In a bowl combine bread and milk. Let it set for around 5 minutes or until bread has completely soaked up the milk. Mix to combine.

In another bowl combine ground beef, red onion, egg, soaked bread and spices. Mix until everything is well incorporated.

With the help of your hands shape small balls.

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add meatballs and cook for 3 minutes per side or until golden brown and fully cooked.

Transfer to a plate.

In the same pan add flour and cook for 3 minutes or until golden.

Add stock and mix until everything is well incorporated. Mix in heavy cream and bring to a soft simmer for around 2 minutes.

Add meatballs and cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from fire.

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