Swedish Meatballs

If you don't have an Ikea in your town, I feel bad for you. Not only do they have great household trimmings, but you can have lunch there too! For a couple bucks, you can get some "genuine" Swedish meatballs with (admittedly) awesome lingonberry sauce. 

While I didn't make lingonberry sauce for these, I feel the spirt of the meatballs is still in tact.

This is a much lightened up version that tasted really good. I couldn't tell it was turkey and I didn't miss any added fat.

Swedish Meatballs

(from here)

Meatballs:

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1 tsp olive oil

1.25 lb 93% lean ground turkey (You can use ground beef instead)

1 egg

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Sauce:

2 cups reduced sodium beef stock

2 oz light cream cheese

==

Toss the onion, garlic, celery and parsley into a food processor.

Buzz until minced. Maybe 5-10 pulses. Scrape down the sides as needed.

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a pan and cook the onion mixture for 5-7 minutes over medium heat.

Remove from the heat and let cool slightly before adding to the meat.

When your onions have cooled a little bit, combine them with the turkey, 1 egg, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

Stir well to combine.

Roll into 1/8 cup balls (take 1/4 cup and split in half - mine were ~33 grams each).

I made 22. Yes, I weighed each one.

You can stash these in the fridge if you make these early.

==

When you're ready to eat, pour 2 cups of beef broth into your pan. Bring to a boil.

Slip your meatballs into the broth and drop to med/low. 

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove the meatballs from the broth with a slotted spoon.

You'll have some bits leftover in the broth. You can leave it in there if you want, but I strained it out.

Just pour over a fine mesh strainer.

Return the filtered broth to the pan and add the cream cheese. Turn the heat to med/high and whisk to incorporate the cream cheese.

Keep it cooking, stirring/whisking nearly constantly until smooth.

Serve over egg noodles or as appetizers with toothpicks.

Overall, these meatballs were awesome. The dish was surprisingly rich and comforting. The allspice gives the dish a warm feeling and the noodles add a nice texture element.

The meatballs were moist and delicious. If you told me were they beef, I'd have believed you.

Enjoy!