Gluten & Dairy Free Swedish Meatballs
My family has moved a fair few times in my life. I was born in France, moved to Belgium a few years later, then to Switzerland as an adult. And while I didn’t live with them year-round on their further trips to Bosnia, Slovakia and back to Switzerland again, I had more than my fair share of moves around the UK and going back and forth to them for holidays during my gap year and university years.
People often ask me if, with my upbringing, anywhere really feels like home. I was in Belgium the longest and did most of my growing up there, so I often say that is my home at heart. The longer I am in England the more I feel French. I have friends and family all over the world and could probably fairly quickly make my home wherever I were to go. But there is one other place I sometimes wonder if I could call home-y and familiar… IKEA.
Wherever you go in the world, there seems to be one. And I’ve spent many hours in IKEA bouncing on beds and hiding in fake bathrooms and pretending to eat at kitchen tables. I’ve played house with my sister in many an IKEA showroom, and run down endless aisles of bookshelves.
I’ve always quite enjoyed the IKEA experience, from the playing and running and choosing and laughing to the eating. And yes, I am talking about the famous IKEA Swedish meatballs. I do enjoy them, but always wondered if making them at home might be a much better way to eat them. I figured it must be, as so many things are, one of those dishes that is just far superior when made at home.
Last year I discovered just how much better. I made The Recipe Critic’s Swedish meatball recipe, and it was absolutely incredible. Miles better than IKEA! It was just similar enough to jog my nostalgic memory, but amazing enough to be in a different class altogether. If you have no issues with dairy and/or gluten, I urge you to try her recipe. In fact, I never intended to make a Swedish meatball recipe of my own because hers was just so good I didn’t believe I could improve on it.
But then I found myself having to eat gluten and dairy free for a bit. And craving Swedish meatballs (what is it with humans and craving what we cannot have?!). So I tweaked and tested and tweaked again, and came up with this. It was never going to be quite as creamy as the original, but we were all really impressed at how close you can get without including gluten and, more importantly, dairy. Plus, I added plenty of veg. Because it just wouldn’t be my recipe without upping the veg content!
And the best bit? No coconut flavour! Don’t get me wrong, I’m coming round to coconut in many ways, but there are some things I just don’t want it in, and Swedish meatballs is one of them. It just does.not.work.
So enjoy the non-coconutty dairy free goodness of these creamy, flavour-packed, veg-heavy Swedish meatballs. You may be very pleasantly surprised!
Love Swedish meatballs but your body doesn't love dairy? Try this gluten and dairy free version, which is still creamy and filling and delicious, but full of vegetables and no lactose! Paleo/low carb options.
- 500 g (1lb) beef mince (ground beef)
- 3 tablespoons (gluten free) bread crumbs or ground almonds
- 1 carrot, grated
- a small handful of fresh roughly chopped parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- a few gratings fresh nutmeg or 1/4 teaspoon ground
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt & pepper
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons odourless* coconut oil (or butter if not dairy free)
- 3 tablespoons tapioca flour or arrowroot powder (cornstarch/cornflour can also be used)
- 500 ml (2 cups) beef or chicken stock
- 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) unsweetened non-dairy milk** (or use full-fat dairy milk if dairy is not a problem for you)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons tamari (gluten free soy sauce - use coconut aminos for paleo)
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3-4 handfuls of finely sliced kale or spinach, stalks removed
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First make the meatballs: Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and shape into 18-24 meatballs. Fry in 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large frying pan until browned all over (3-4 minutes). Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
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For the sauce: Melt the coconut oil or butter in the frying pan and whisk in the flour. Cook for 30 seconds, then slowly whisk in the stock, milk, vinegar, tamari, mustard and allspice, whisking all the while. Simmer for 5 minutes until thickened and creamy, whisking frequently and adding a little more stock or water if it starts to over-thicken or stick. Season to taste and return the meatballs to the pan along with the kale and cook in the sauce for another 5 minutes. Serve with cooked rice or mashed potatoes and more steamed greens (roasted or steamed regular or tenderstem broccoli is especially yummy with this).
*I buy this odourless coconut oil. You could use regular virgin coconut oil but it will give a slight coconut flavour.
**It works well with unsweetened almond milk. You could use coconut drinking milk (which doesn't usually have a coconut flavour), cashew milk or a thicker milk like oat milk if you prefer.
