I found this recipe years ago by chance. I wasn’t familiar with IKEA and had never had the meatballs they serve at their stores. But I gave it a shot and wow – so delicious! My whole family went nuts over it. Since then my daughter has requested it for her birthday most years and I have friends and family who ask me to make it for them. It’s really that good!
So imagine my excitement when I moved to Virginia and found out there was an IKEA 40 mins away from me! I knew I needed to go and try the meatballs and see how close they compare! I was all pumped and excited walking up to the cafeteria style food court (without a tray cause I had no idea what I was doing haha) and I saw the meatballs sitting in the tray behind the glass and I knew right away……mine were better!
Now don’t hate me if you are an IKEA meatball lover – you should love me after this post cause I’m going to show you the light! I got their dish and ate it and it was good, okay, slightly above mediocre, tasted similar but nothing special like the ones I had been making for years. It really goes to show that homemade and from scratch produces the kind of food that feeds the soul and keeps the kids asking for more.
Here is the recipe I found way back when and a video of how to make it. It’s a pretty simple recipe so check it out. Also, see below for my tips on how to make it even simpler and better!
BIGGEST TIP: double the gravy…just trust me 😉
TIP 1: Any kind of onion works in this dish but I’ve really grown to like red onion but use what you have.
TIP 2: If you don’t have allspice put just a sprinkling of cinnamon, cloves and a touch of nutmeg in your palm and put that into the pan.
TIP 3: You don’t need to refrigerate the meatballs after rolling out (I actually scoop mine with a 2 TB cookie scooper). I did refrigerate it for the first couple of years and then one day I didn’t have time and just put it in the oven right after scooping the meatballs and they were exactly the same. So now I save myself time and hassle and skip that step.
TIP 4: You don’t need to use cream. Half and half or even milk works well. I’ve done all 3 and I honestly feel like for this recipe heavy cream isn’t needed.
TIP 5: Worcestershire sauce can be substituted with A1 sauce in case you ever needed to know that and I like the more meaty flavor you get with A1 but use what you have! Also, unsalted butter can be substituted with salted butter in case no one has told you that. For every cube or 1/2 cup of salted butter they have added about 1/4tsp of salt. So don’t go out of your way to buy unsalted, just lessen the salt a pinch if you really care. Otherwise pretend it’s all the same and save yourself the hassle of having 2 kinds of butter. Stick with the salted, it tastes better.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
It’s a great recipe. Do as written by Food Network or use my tips, either way you have yourself a winner! It goes really well with mashed potatoes or egg noodles, green beans, cooked carrots or a side salad. And if you can find the lingonberry jam I’m sure that would be good but I never have.
Enjoy-Jenny
Sugar & Stice & Everything Nice 