The national dish of Sweden - meatballs
The Swedish national dish consists of mashed potatoes, spicy meatballs, a creamy gravy and sourly taste from the cucumber and lingonberries. A perfect combination of flavors which is hard to resist to!
Prep Time 40 mins
Cook Time 20 mins
Total Time 1 hr
Course Main Course, Main Dish
Cuisine Swedish
Servings 4 (50 meatballs)
Meatballs
- 100 ml cream
- 25 g breadcrumbs or Panko
- 500 g mixed minced meat pork + beef
- 1 small onion
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- 1 pinch allspice
- 1 pinch black pepper freshly ground
- 1 egg
Mashed potatoes
- 1 kg potatoes
- water
- 100 ml milk
- 100 ml cream
- 1 tsp butter
- 2 pinches white pepper
Gravy
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 cube meat broth
- 250 ml cream
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 pinch black pepper
Pickled cucumber
- 1 cucumber
- 100 ml vinegar
- 150 ml water
- 3 tsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
Raw-stirred lingonberries
- 200 g lingonberries
- 100 g sugar
Meatballs
Mix the cream with the breadcrumbs and set aside for 10 minutes until the cream is absorbed. (time to start boiling the potatoes now)
Finely chop the onion
Mix the minced meat with salt, nutmeg, allspice and black pepper until it’s evenly spread.
Add the egg and mix until the minced meat becomes solid again. Stir in the bread crumbs mixture and onion.
Pour cold water on your hands to form small fine meatballs. Fry a few at a time in a frying pan with butter. The difficult part is to keep the round shape and at the same time get a good sear around.
Mashed potatoes
Peel and wash the potatoes. Cut them in 1½ cm slices. Boil them in salted water until they are soft, about 15 minutes. Drain.
Mash the potatoes using a potato press or a hand mixer in the pot. Add milk, cream and butter. Season with salt and white pepper.
Stir the mashed potatoes until it’s fluffy.
Gravy
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour.
Crumble the meat broth and add it to the saucepan. Add water. Let the sauce boil for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the cream and season with salt, pepper and soy sauce.
Pickled cucumber
Slice cucumber thinly and squeeze out the water. Place in a bowl.
Pour over the vinegar, sugar, salt and water.
Mix and let soak for about 10 minutes.
Raw-stirred lingonberries