Swedish Meatballs in a Mushroom Cream Sauce
These meatballs are so flavorful and a great spin on the classic Swedish Meatball because they’re packed with ground beef and pork, breadcrumbs, white onion, garlic, allspice, white pepper, milk, egg, Worcestershire sauce and so much love!
You need this super easy meatball recipe in your repertoire and the mushroom cream sauce takes it to an even more delicious level!
Plus I’ll add that these Swedish Meatballs are the perfect comfort food in the midst of New England’s winter because who doesn’t love saucy meatballs on fluffy mashed potatoes when the temperature is 32°F.
Swedish Meatballs are often served on potatoes, i.e. boiled or mashed, lingonberry jam and sometimes pickled cucumber. I did not have lingonberry jam or pickled cucumbers, so I decided to dress up my mini meatballs (because Swedish Meatballs are always bite sized) with an incredible mushroom cream sauce!
Swedish Meatballs also make for a great party food or yummy Friday night or weekend munchie! Regardless how you serve these, they’re scrumptious and just what you need in COVID days! I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you do try it, please share your feedback 🙏, cheers 🥂!
Some Notes
- Making the Meatballs – For my recipe, I suggest cooking your onions and garlic in some butter, along with allspice and white pepper. By cooking your aromatics and the spices with a pinch of salt, you’re waking up the flavors and giving your meatballs more deliciousness. I also add Worcestershire and milk, which is then added to the breadcrumbs. This mixture helps to create juicy meatballs when cooked. Before adding the breadcrumb mixture to the ground beef and pork, you’ll want to allow it to cool. This will prevent any cooking of the meat or egg before you’re ready to bake. Once the breadcrumb mixture is cooled, add to the ground beef and pork with an egg and one egg white. Once you form the meatballs in inch balls, place into the fridge for at least 1 hour, if not 3-4 hours, because this will help the meatballs keep their shape when baking. And on that note, this is an oven friendly meatball and while many recipes call for frying, I wanted to keep the recipe easy and save some calories with baking, but you could definitely fry if you’d prefer.
- Making the Mushroom Cream Sauce – In my recipe, I used white button mushrooms, but you could certainly use baby bellas. I also used white wine in the sauce, which you could certainly omit if you like to keep your cooking alcohol free. Also make sure you temper your cream before adding cold to heat. This can be achieved by warming the cream first or adding some of the mushrooms or warm beef stock to the cream to increase the temp.
- Freezing the Meatballs – These meatballs would also freeze well and can be defrosted as you wish to use.
Leftover Ideas
Oh man the options are endless. When I combined the meatballs with the mushroom cream sauce, I held a few because I knew I wanted meatball subs. By adding tomato sauce, it changed the flavor profile, and it was incredibly tasty. You could also do a Swedish meatball panini which was done for one of my work lunches 😋! Some other ideas include a take on a Bánh mì, Spaghetti and Meatballs, add the meatballs to a pizza, get creative and enjoy!
Swedish Meatballs with Mushroom Gravy
Ingredients
Meatballs
- ¾ lb ground beef
- ¾ lb ground pork
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 2 TBSP unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup white onion, minced
- 4 cloves garlic, smash and minced finely
- ¼ tsp allspice
- 2 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp white pepper
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
Meatball Mushroom Cream Sauce
- 2 TBSP unsalted butter
- 1 medium-size shallot, minced
- 6 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 2 TBSP all purpose flour
- ¼ cup white wine
- 1½ cup beef stock
- 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
- ½ TBSP Dijon mustard
- ½ cup light cream
- salt & pepper, for seasoning
Instructions
Making the Meatballs
- In a large meat-safe bowl, add the ground beef and pork and mix until well combined.
- In a small fry pan, add the butter and warm on medium heat. Once melted, add the onion, garlic, allspice, salt, white pepper and cook, stirring, until soft, ~5mins.
- Add the milk and Worcestershire sauce and simmer for ~2mins and turn off the heat.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add the breadcrumbs and combine with the milk mixture and allow to cool.
- Once cooled, combine with the ground beef and pork, egg and egg white.
- Mix until well combined
- Form into 1inch meatballs and add to a lined or greased baking sheet. Place in the refrigerator for at least 1hrs, ideally 3-4hrs.
- When ready, bake the meatballs in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.
Meatball Mushroom Cream Sauce
- Melt the butter in a large fry pan on medium heat.
- Add the shallot & mushrooms with a bit of salt & pepper and cook until the mushrooms have released their water, 4-5 mins.
- Add the flour and cook for ~4mins.
- Add the white wine and cook the alcohol off, which will take 3-4mins.
- Add the beef stock, Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard and bring to a simmer.
- Add temper cream and mix until well combined. Taste and season with salt or pepper, if needed.
Finishing the Meatballs
- Add the meatballs to the mushroom cream sauce and mix until the meatballs are well coated.
- Serve warm with mashed or boiled potatoes, enjoy and cheers 🥂!
