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Here’s the real IKEA Swedish Meatballs recipe – straight from IKEA stores.
Like a lot of companies these days, IKEA just shared their iconic Swedish Meatballs recipe with the world – so we had to give it a try!
Sure – we already have our own Swedish Meatballs recipe here (and it’s delicious) – but I have to admit that I really enjoy the version sold at IKEA restaurants inside their stores.
What makes IKEA Swedish Meatballs so special?
IKEA Swedish Meatballs are tender and delicious with a wonderful, savory cream sauce on top.
They serve the meatballs with mashed potatoes and green beans, plus a spoonful of IKEA’s sweet lingonberry jam on the side. The sweet-tart jam is a wonderful complement to the savory meatballs, and it also helps cut through the richness of the sauce.
Finally, after a day of wandering the stores aisles – all of the meals at IKEA are surprisingly affordable and delicious, and a great way to feed a hungry family.
What did we think of the recipe?
Jack and I both thought that the taste of this homemade version of IKEA’s Swedish Meatballs was pretty spot on – and we’d totally make this recipe again! Like most great meatball recipes, it’s a mix of both beef and pork which gives them a wonderful flavor and soft texture.
Note that the recipe, as written, makes a lot of sauce (you could probably cut the sauce recipe in half and still have enough) and this homemade recipe seemed thicker, creamier and lighter in color than the sauce served over the meatballs at the stores.
But the flavor is very much the same (delicious!) and the meatballs are soft and tender – just like you’d order at IKEA restaurants.
You can see the actual IKEA recipe here. We adapted our recipe slightly to reflect US Customary Measurements – only because that’s how we (and most of our US-based readers) cook.
Give this IKEA Swedish Meatballs recipe a try – then let us know what you think!
You may enjoy these other meatball recipes:
- Swedish Meatballs (our own recipe) over Noodles
- Porcupine Meatballs
- Italian-Style Meatballs
- Easy Freezer Meatballs
- Keto Chicken Meatballs
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
The Real IKEA Swedish Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients
Meatballs
1 1/2 pounds ground beef 85/15
3/4 pound finely ground pork
1 cup onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, finely minced
1 cup plain bread crumbs
2 whole eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Sauce
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1 1/4 cups beef stock
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoon olive oil
6 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (10 tablespoons or 2.9 ounces as weighed on a kitchen scale)
For Serving
Instructions
In a large bowl, mix ground beef, ground pork, onion, garlic, bread crumbs, eggs, milk, salt, pepper and one tablespoon of oil. Mix just enough to combine and try not to overmix.
Use a one-once scoop and scoop out 55 one-ounce meatballs. Line them up on your cutting board and run a knife through each one which will yield 110 half-ounce pieces.
Roll each into a ball and line up on a sheet tray covered in parchment. Keep your hands wet while rolling.
Refrigerate on the sheet tray for one hour to set.
After one hour, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a second sheet tray with parchment paper.
Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat with one tablespoon of olive oil and once hot, gently place one third of the meatballs in the pan and cook on all sides for about 4-5 minutes. Use a small spatula or tongs to continually turn the meatballs to brown evenly. Remove these browned meatballs to the prepared sheet pan.
Repeat for the next two batches of oil and meatballs.
Once all the meatballs have browned and are now lined up on the sheet tray, place the sheet tray in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.
While the meatballs are cooking, heat the vegetable stock, beef stock, heavy cream, soy sauce and mustard in a small sauce pan. Mixture needs to be hot to prevent lumping in the sauce but does not need to boil. Set aside.
In a 4-5-quart pot, over medium heat melt butter in oil and add flour to make a roux. Cook and stir continually for 3-4 minutes until the raw flour smell is gone.
Gradually add the liquid to the roux while whisking. Heat this mixture to hot and bubbly. If the mixture gets too thick, thin down a little with milk or cream.
When the meatballs come out of the oven, add to the sauce and serve with mashed potatoes, green beans, and lingonberry jam.
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Excited to try this. Just an FYI, there’s a misprint in the updated recipe. It is written as “2 Tablespoons soy sauce”, but should actually be teaspoons.
Thanks Honore – I’ll fix that!
Why not add metric measures as well. Most other places do. Imperial is US and the rest of the world uses metric..well, USA space and any medical uses metric, but cooking is old school
Hi Guest – We are located in the US and according to our site demographics, 99.8% of our readers are from the United States as well. We share our recipes based on how we (and the majority of our readers) cook which is using imperial measurements. To provide you with metric measures, we would rely upon an online conversion tool which may or may not be accurate – we’ve tried making some recipes using a reverse conversion of metric to imperial and most of the time, the recipe results have not been quite perfect so we’d rather provide a recipe written as it has been kitchen tested. Many other food sites do provide the conversion tool in their recipe – and we may turn that feature on in the future – but again, we don’t trust the conversion calculations to ensure that you see good results when you make our recipe. Hope that helps!
I used ground turkey (trying to eat leaner proteins). And notice the flour measurement in the gravy was a lot so just used 1/2 cup and 1 tbsp of butter and subbed chicken stock for veggie stock. And I rly enjoyed the recipe ! I will def be remaking. Thank you!
Thank you Phylicia!
I agree with other comments that the flour quantity is way off. The recipe that Ikea published is for a smaller quantity (450ml of combined liquids vs. 3.75 cups in this recipe but it calls for equal parts of butter and flour (40g) 40g of flour was about 1T more than 1/4 c.
Thanks for your feedback Christine.
Do not, do not, do not use 3/4 cup of flour!!! The sauce come out like loose fudge. It was so thick, you had to scoop it instead of pour it. I was skeptical when I saw 3/4 cup, but followed the directions exactly. I knew it was mistake as soon as I poured in the liquid. I ended up adding about 2 more cups of liquid and you still couldn’t pour it like a gravy. The taste was good though.
Hi Armella – Thanks for your feedback. In our experience testing this recipe, 3/4 cup was the correct amount. Not sure why you had to add so much extra liquid – sounds like a mis-measurement someplace along the way. It may be worth noting: We measure our flour by spooning it into the measuring cup so it’s loosely packed. If you really packed the flour as you measured, it is likely too much was used.
When you do something like that (spooning in flour), you really should note that technique with the recipe. Most people just use their cups to scoop flour when home cooking. That critical technique change utilized by you changes everything, thus it is prudent to warn the ‘scoopers’ an uncommon technique to home cooks is being utilized, and is necessary and will affect the outcome.
Great suggestion.
Same when I followed the recioe
I am excited to try these to surprise a friend who usually buys the frozen ones, but IKEA has been out for a long time. Do you think they would freeze? I am trying to decide if I should freeze them raw or cooked.
Hi Alicia – I would freeze them cooked (before the sauce is added) and then reheat when ready to serve.
Best frozen raw. Freezing anything previously cooked will ultimately dry them. That is why frozen meatballs in the store lack the juiciness of a freshly made product at home.
It would be best to roll them, freeze them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and add them to an airtight container once frozen. Then you can thaw and fry, or immediately roast from frozen, whenever convenient. =•)
Thanks for you input.
I made this and it turned out soooo thick it was inedible. I questioned the amount of flour (3/4 cup) but did it anyway. The roux was not liquid while cooking it because of the amount of flour. It was a past. Completely a waste, had to throw it away. Now I have to figure out a quick sauce for my meatballs.
Hi Amy – The recipe as shared by IKEA, and shared here, worked for us. With any roux, an easy fix to thin it would have been to add more butter.
When Ikea released this recipe I immediately suspected there must be some key detail they are leaving out. Otherwise they wouldn’t do it. My meatballs somehow never come out as juicy and tender… I will be trying tonight and see how it goes.
Let us know what you think RJ!
First off, you want to cook the roux for at least 20 minutes until you get a dark brown color (adding cream will lighten it later in the recipe), use a whole stick of butter…not 6 TBSP. The less you cook a roux the thicker your sauce will be. A 3-4 minute will make a roux that will stick to the spoon, the wall and your ribs with no dripping (like mine)! Cooking the roux 20 minutes (dark brown) will give you a dark, thinner sauce with with more flavor. I would also recommend deglazing the meatball cooking skillet with the broths and utilize the deglazed liquid in your sauce for more flavor. The flavor is close to ikea, but not quite…something tart or tangy beyond the mustard (use coarse Grey Poupon) is missing, maybe mustard with horseradish or a little vinegar (or Akvivit). I’m not sure. Maybe deglaze the pan with Akvivit (don’t burn your eyebrows)! Serve over egg noodles. Hope that helps. I’m going to try it again with my mods in a few weeks. Hopefully I will get a better result.
Thanks for the suggestions Jeff – This was the recipe word-for-word, shared by IKEA and we didn’t make any changes. We do have our own Swedish Meatball recipe from a few years ago that includes some of your thoughts already and you might like to check that out: https://www.afamilyfeast.com/swedish-meatballs-over-noodles/
Delicious!!!!
Thanks Melissa!