Now Reading
Ikea Releases Famous Meatball Recipe, Here’s How To Make Them (With Substitutions)

Ikea Releases Famous Meatball Recipe, Here’s How To Make Them (With Substitutions)

Subscribe to our new Telegram channel for the latest updates on Covid-19 and other issues.


The most popular item the Swedish furniture giant has is funnily enough a dish at its cafeteria. Even in Malaysia, a trip to IKEA isn’t quite complete without a plate of Swedish meatballs.

The good news is that IKEA has released the recipe for their meatballs and cream sauce, and it actually looks relatively easy even if you’re making them from scratch.

Meatballs

This is what you need (30–40 meatballs, serves 4):
250 g minced beef
250 g minced pork
1 egg
2–3 dl cream (or milk) and water
2½ tbsp fine chopped onion
½ dl unsweetened rusk flour
2 boiled potatoes, cold
4–5 tbsp butter, margarine or oil
salt
white pepper
(allspice)

Heat the onion until golden in a couple of tablespoons of lightly browned butter. Mash the potatoes and moisten the rusk flour in a little water. Mix all the ingredients into a smooth farce and flavour generously with salt, white pepper and (optional) finecrushed allspice. Shape the farce into round balls and transfer to a floured chopping board, then fry them quite slowly in plenty of butter.

(Credit: TRP)

Cream Sauce

This is what you need (cream sauce, serves 4):
100 ml double cream
200 ml water or beef stock
soy
salt
white pepper
(1 tbsp white flour)

Swirl out the pan with a couple of decilitres (1 decilitre = 100ml) of boiling water or meat stock. Strain the pan juices and dilute with cream. Thicken with white flour if preferred. Season well, and serve this and the meatballs with freshly boiled potatoes, lingonberry jam, a green salad and salted or pickled gherkins.

IKEA man making IKEA meatballs.
(Credit: IKEA)

Looks easy enough right? Well, if you take a closer look at the ingredient list, you may realize that you probably don’t have all those readily stocked in your pantry.

Firstly, a majority of the Malaysian population cannot eat pork. So substitute it for minced beef instead, but go for a mince with more fat content for a juicier meatball.

For the population that cannot eat beef, substitute beef with lamb or veal instead.

Rusk flour is also uncommon in Malaysia, other than the crumbling baby teething biscuit some people may remember. Funnily enough, that is exactly what rusk is, but if you don’t have rusk at home, you can easily substitute it for dried fine breadcrumbs.

Beef broth can be substituted with vegetable broth, dissolved bouillon cubes, seasoned soy sauce, or chicken stock. Just take note that your cream sauce will definitely taste a little different with the substitutions, but still taste good.

As for the signature lingonberry jam, substitute it for other berry-based jams to round off the savoury meatballs on a sweet note. Strawberry jam or raspberry jam works fine.


Share your thoughts with us on TRP’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

© 2024 The Rakyat Post. All Rights Reserved. Owned by 3rd Wave Media Sdn Bhd