Swedish Meatballs Köttbullar Recipe

Author:
is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

Today I’ll show you my Köttbullar Meatballs Recipe.

The original recipe comes from a colleague from Sweden.

Köttbullar is a traditional Swedish dish and most of us know the Swedish meatballs from the shopping trip to the furniture store Ikea.

Erik, the chef from Sweden, has created a homemade version together with me. This is a recipe refined by his grandmother in a chef’s style. 

For our cream sauce we use veal stock. Thus the sauce becomes particularly fine and also exists in the star kitchen. In addition, we show a simple variant based on broth.

Be sure to pay attention to the potato variety when making your own mashed potatoes.

Mealy potatoes or potatoes that are mainly firm are ideal. This gives your puree a nice consistency.

You can also serve the Swedish Pflanzerl with boiled potatoes, which is even easier and tastes delicious!

We have taken mixed minced meat.

You can also take beef or elk meat.

With veal prepared you would have another noble variant for your guest kitchen.

Wish you good luck! 

1. Recipe Köttbullar Meatballs

The following is the guide with all ingredients and further tips for your perfect experience!

Here is the meatballs and meatballs comparison:

The Koettbullar are in comparison to Bavarian Meatballs Fleischpflanzerl in the consistency firmer and drier.

“Fleischpflanzerl” contain eggs and bread, which makes them fluffier.

The Kottbullar receive the desired binding and firmness by the addition of breadcrumbs.

I wish you good success. Questions about the recipe? Write me about the comment function at the end of the page.

Köttbullar with cream sauce

Cooked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 4
Calories 1198
Total Time 50 Min.
Preparation Time 30 Min.
Cook Time 20 Min.

Simple guide to prepare original Swedish meatballs.

Rate Now!

4.99 from 922 ratings

Köttbullar Meatballs Recipe Image
Köttbullar Meatballs Recipe Image © Thomas Sixt

Ingredients

mashed potatoes

400 g big potatoes
4 g Salt
40 g butter
1 pinches Pepper
1 pinches nutmeg
150 ml Cream

Swedish Meatballs

2 pc shalotts
10 g butter
1 pc Bay leaf
500 g minced meat (You can use beef/pig, beef, elk minced meat.)
50 ml Cream
40-80 g breadcrumbs (Reference value! Gluten-free variant: rice flour)
5 g Salt
6-8 pinches Pepper
15-25 g Dijon mustard
50 g clarified butter

Cream sauce

1 pc big onion
1 pc glove of garlic
10 g clarified butter
15 g tomato puree
50 ml wine
250 ml veal stock (or beef broth)
5 g corn starch (I like to use puree to tie sauce!)
150 ml Cream
50 g butter
1 pinches Salt
1 pinches bell pepper yellow

Prepare peas

15 g butter
300 g peas (green peas)
4 pinches Salt
3 pinches Pepper

Decoration and Additions

40-70 g Cranberries (Cranberries cofitüre)
4 pc Parsley

Instruction

Potatoes for mashed potatoes in a saucepan.
Preparing potatoes for for cooking.

Prepare mashed potatoes

Wash and peel the potatoes, cut into even slices and cook until soft in boiling salted water.

Prepare mashed potatoes yourself.
Boiled potatoes for mashed potatoes.

Prepare puree

Drain the remaining water and season the potatoes with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Whipped mashed potatoes
Mashed potatoes whipped with a hand mixer in a saucepan.

Prepare puree

Mix the potatoes quickly with a mixer and add the cream little by little.

As an alternative to mashed potatoes, boil the potatoes with or without peel in salted water.

Then drain, (peel), toss in butter, finish with parsley, salt, pepper and nutmeg and keep warm.

Sweat the onion cubes
Sweat the onion cubes

Prepare onions

Finely dice the shallots and sauté in butter with the bay leaf for 15 minutes at medium temperature until colourless.

Erik told me his grandmother used to do it this way.

The bay leaf gives the meatballs a special flavour.

Fresh minced meat
Fresh minced meat in a bowl

Prepare minced mass

Then remove the bay leaf and mix the shallots with the remaining Köttbullar ingredients in a large bowl.

Season the meat mixture with salt, pepper and mustard.

Optionally, you can add herbs.

Portion and shape Kochklops mass
Portion the minced meat mixture and form dumplings.

Prepare Köttbullar

Form small Köttbullar balls and fry in clarified butter in a pan.

Alternatively, you can also prepare the meatballs in the oven, see the note in the article above.

Keep Köttbullar warm in the oven at 100°C until serving.

Deglaze sauce with red wine and veal stock.
Sauce with red wine and veal stock, butter and potato finely grated to thicken.

Prepare Köttbullar cream sauce

For the Köttbullar sauce, remove the fat from the pan, finely dice the peeled onion and garlic and sauté in the pan.

Add the tomato paste and brown until light brown.

Deglaze with wine, add stock or veal stock and bring to the boil.

You can bind the sauce now with starch mixed in cold water or later with mashed potatoes.

Bring the sauce to the boil, slowly add the cream and season with salt and pepper.

Prepare the sauce next to the stove for serving.

Fresh, opened pea.
Fresh peas taste delicious. Alternatively, you can use frozen peas. Please leave canned peas on the shelf!

Peas Preparation

Heat the butter in a saucepan, add the peas and pour in a little water.

Season the peas with salt and pepper, cover and cook quickly.

At the end of cooking, remove the lid and let the liquid evaporate.

Place the peas in the butter stock ready for serving.

Köttbullar served on a plate with peas, mashed potatoes, cream sauce and cranberries.
Köttbullar, the original Swedish meatballs, taste delicious with cream sauce, cranberries, mashed potatoes and peas. You can use mixed minced meat, minced beef or moose meat for Köttbullar.

Serve

Prepare heated plates and arrange the mashed potatoes.

Add Köttbullar and cover with the sauce, add peas.

Derve decorated with cranberries and parsley.

2. Calories and Nutritional Values

3. Prepare Köttbullar Meatballs in the Oven

You can easily prepare the Meat Balls in the oven.

Place the formed balls on an oiled baking tray and cook them at 140-150°C hot air for about 35-45 minutes.

I advise against higher temperatures, because otherwise the meat balls can rise and break too strongly.

Due to the selected temperature range the meatballs cook evenly and get a nice colour at the end.

Köttbullar, the original Swedish meatballs taste delicious with cream sauce, cranberries, mashed potatoes and peas. You can use mixed minced meat, minced beef or elk meat for Köttbullar. The meatballs can also be prepared in the oven, the preparation in the pan is original.

4. Prepare Koettbullar in a frying Pan and Cook Sauce

This is the traditional way of preparation Swedish Meat Balls.

Brown the formed meatballs in a pan in oil or as Erik says with clarified butter.

Then place the fried balls on a plate.

The frying in the pan has formed roasting substances, which you use for the sauce.

Remove the remaining oil from the pan, add the onion and garlic cubes and prepare a light brown sauce with tomato paste.

Clarified butter produces the typical Swedish taste, says Erik the cook!

Tip from chef Thomas Sixt

Deglaze the sauce with white wine or red wine, add stock or veal stock, bring to the boil and slowly add the cream.

You can bind the sauce later with some mashed potatoes.

Serve Köttbullar with boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes. Both varieties are delicious. Be inspired by our Chef’s Tips when cooking cream sauce and conjure up a great dish on your plate.

5. More Ideas

Comments, Cooking Questions and Answers

4.99 from 922 ratings

Below you can write to me directly.
Please don’t forget the star rating on the recipe, 5 stars means you liked it!