IKEA Meatballs Recipe: Recreate These Famous Meatballs From Scratch In The Comfort Of Your Kitchen

IKEA meatballs recipe for beginners to follow

I’m sure I’m not the only one guilty of travelling to the ulu IKEA outlets for their food instead of furniture. Slathered in a creamy gravy with a side of refreshing lingonberry sauce, IKEA’s meatballs never fail to brighten my day. As always, scroll down for the full recipe below.

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The process

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Start by finely chopping up half an onion. 

Sweat the onions on a pan at low heat. This process removes the moisture from the onions and makes them sweeter and softer.

The onions are ready when they are translucent. Put them aside while you prepare the other fillings of the meatball.

Mix breadcrumbs, eggs and milk in a mixing bowl. 

Add in the onions, minced beef and pork to the mixing bowl. Feel free to substitute pork with chicken or additional beef. Mix everything up, and don’t be afraid to get down and dirty with your hands. 

Season the meat mix with salt and black pepper.

For an added touch, a pinch of allspice will do the trick.

Wrap the entire mixing bowl in cling wrap and pop it into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This gives time for the meat to relax properly and absorb all of the spices. 

After a good 30 minutes, take the meat mix out of the refrigerator and shape them into cute lil’ balls by hand.

Prepare a glaze by combining melted butter and a pinch of allspice. The glaze gives the meatballs a nice golden brown hue after the baking process, and ensures they won’t stick to the tray.

Neatly glaze the top of the meatballs and the surface of the baking tray. 

Pop them into a preheated oven at 220 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

To prepare the gravy, start by adding butter to a pan on low heat.

Once the butter has melted, add all-purpose flour.

The resulting mixture of butter and flour, also known as a roux, should possess a doughy texture.

Add beef stock into the roux and turn up the heat to medium-high.

Once the mixture starts to boil and thicken, lower the heat. Add in heavy cream, followed by soy sauce.

A neat trick to find out whether the mixture is thick enough is if it coats your spatula nicely. If it does, it’s good to go.

Finally, season with salt, pepper and chilli powder.

As lingonberries are not easily found in Singapore, we made do with cranberry sauce. To prepare the cranberry sauce, pour water into a heated pan. Once the water starts to boil, add sugar.

Once all the sugar has melted, add the cranberries. Smash some of the cranberries to give the sauce a varied texture.

Plate the meatballs on a clean plate, with a dollop of cranberry sauce at the side. To serve, pour the luxurious gravy all over the meatballs. 

With simple ingredients easily found in many supermarkets, this IKEA meatballs recipe would be good to whip up for your fam during this stay-home season. During this trying time, it’s of utmost importance to keep our spirits high, and good food certainly helps. For more ideas on what to prepare at home, check out our coriander butter cake recipe and Dalgona Speculoos mIlk recipe. 

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Photos taken by Clark Tan.