Swedish Meatballs with a creamy sour cream gravy, are great all by themselves or served over pasta with Lingonberry Jam. Just like your mom made but better and no cans of soup required. So much better than IKEA.

My mom makes fabulous meatballs covered with cream of mushroom soup. I wanted to make Swedish Meatballs as good as hers but with a creamy sour cream sauce that was better than you find at IKEA. Not that there’s aren’t delicious but I’m pretty sure you will agree that these are fantastic with or without the Lingonberry Jam.
What is Lingonberry Jam
I’ve never tried Lingonberry Jam but after a recent trip to IKEA and giving it a try, I decided I needed to get a jar and see what everyone is raving about. Lingonberries are a small red fruit similar to a cranberry but not quite as tart. Like cranberries, you don’t eat them raw, they need sugar!
You can find them fresh in the Scandinavian Countries and in New England and Canada. For all things you might want to know about Lingonberries, check out Swedish Food, since they are so plentiful there, they serve them with lots of things. They are also good for you, full of vitamin C and antioxidants. I purchased a jar at Fresh Market, but I found the same brand at Amazon.
How do you make Swedish Meatballs
Step 1:
Make the meatballs: I wanted a flavorful meatball so I used both ground pork and ground beef, to that I added shallots, garlic and allspice and nutmeg. To that I added Panko and egg yolks to hold it all together.
Brown them in a skillet and remove.
Step 2:
Make the sauce: For the sauce, I made a roux with flour and butter and added broth until thickened and then added the sour cream. and added the meatballs back to the sauce to cook for a bit.
Add the meatballs back to the sauce to cook for a bit.
Serve it over pasta or egg noodles with a side of Lingonberry Jam
Now that it’s just the two of us, I don’t always make meals that necessarily go together, so we just had meatballs and a salad for dinner. However, when the girls were home I served it over pasta.
These make great leftovers! We decided that when we tried this recipe for Swedish Meatballs adding the Lingonberry Jam, that we really liked how the tart jam complimented the creamy sauce. It’a so similar to cranberry relish, that you could easily substitute it. Now you have something to serve after Thanksgiving with the extra cranberry relish!
If you love meatballs as much as I do, here are some more MEATBALL recipes
Can you freeze Swedish Meatballs
Swedish Meatballs and the amazing creamy sauce will freeze great. I freeze it in individual disposal containers so that I can just grab one from the freezer for lunch. I would not freeze the pasta with it as it tends to get soggy when reheated.
If you are looking for more LINGONBERRY JAM recipes, these look interesting
- Lingonberries and Cream Hand Pies by Kylee Cooks
- Lemon and Lingonberry Jam Cake Roll by Self Proclaimed Foodie
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Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2-3 diced shallot about 1 cup
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 egg yolk
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- salt and pepper
SAUCE
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup flour
- 2-3 cups broth beef or chicken
- 1 cups sour cream
- salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently until translucent, about 2-3 minutes, add garlic and cook for an additional minute. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine meat, panko, egg yolks, seasonings and onion. Add salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix until well combined. Using a 2 tablespoon ice cream scoop, form into 1 ½ inch balls.
- Add 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet and brown meatballs in batches until all sides are browned, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Sauce: Melt butter in the same skillet. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Slowly add broth and cook until thickened, stirring throughout, about 5 minutes. Stir in sour cream, season with salt and pepper. Stir in meatballs and cook, stirring occasionally until heated through and thickened, about 10 minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Barbara’s Tips + Notes
- If you want a thinner sauce, add more broth.
- This recipe makes about 30 meatballs
I have a quick question. I can’t eat beef broth because it has msg (as does bullion cubes and powder)- what would you suggest as a substitute? Organic chicken broth is what I normally use. I am dying to make this recipe!
I actually used chicken broth when I made it because that’s what I had opened. They turned out great. Hope you like them.