The IKEA Concept!
Unless you’ve lost all access to the internet, TV, and other humans, you’ve heard of IKEA. This company, founded in southern Sweden has stores in 40 countries! They sell furniture and home accessories that appeal to folks trying to stay on a budget, but that still want some unique items at home.
Their concept is so interesting. You walk in on one end of the store and then follow a path that takes you through every area of the store… like a maze… an adventure. They have full rooms setup to show people how they can set things up in their own homes. It’s genius!
IKEA Meatballs… don’t judge 🙂
Okay… so why am I talking about IKEA so much? I wanted to bring you to one of our favourite topics… food… more specifically their meatballs! We’ve actually gone to IKEA a few times, on purpose… for dinner and a stroll on a cold day. Yup…we didn’t need furniture, candles, or lamps. Does that make us sad or brilliant?
Why not enjoy these meatballs at home?
We visited IKEA just last week. Our little guy reminded us that we hadn’t been there in a long time so we decided to go for a walk (ok…we really went for dinner). While I was eating, it hit me. Why not make this at home? Now who’s the brilliant one!
One of my missions this week was to come up with a similar version of their meatballs. There are many recipes out there. Even IKEA posted a recipe for their meatballs. I’m very happy with the version I created. It was priceless watching Michael take a bite and then have that moment of silence and appreciation–the look on his face told me I got it right!
Guilty Pleasures
These meatballs are a guilty pleasure for us. They’re not fancy or nutritious, but we enjoy them and that’s all that matters for the occasional treat. We’re thrilled with the results of our meatball recipe and it’ll be nice to have them at home when we get a craving. But there’s a good chance we’ll probably keep visiting IKEA for meatballs because it’s more than just food… we like the maze!
Don’t forget to treat yourself to a guilty pleasure every once in-awhile. You deserve it! Mmm…meatballs-eat well, friends!
We love visiting Ikea for the long store walk, and of coarse their Swedish meatballs. Here’s our homemade version of their Swedish meatballs.
- 2 + 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 lbs lean ground pork
- 1 lbs lean ground beef
- 1 cup plain bread crumbs
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 2 large eggs, beaten, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup unbleached flour (or allpurpose)
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 3/4 cups 35% cream (whipping cream)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
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Place the pork, beef, bread crumbs, onion, eggs, allspice, worcestershire sauce, 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper in a large bowl.
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Mix the ingredients well with your (washed) hands.
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Using a small spring loaded cookie scoop (or a table spoon measure), measure a loaded scoop of the ground meat mix.
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Place the meat mixture in your hand, and roll it around between the palms of your hands to form a ball. Place the ball on a tray.
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Repeat the last two steps until all the meat is used up.
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Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large pan, on medium high.
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Carefully place 1/2 the meatballs in the pan and brown them. Make sure to keep rotating them to ensure all sides are browned evenly. This should take about 3 to 4 minutes.
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Place all the browned meatballs on a tray.
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Add the last tbsp of oil to the pan, heat it up and repeat the last two steps. All meatballs should be browned and set aside on a tray.
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Add the butter to the pan and reduce the temperature to medium.
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Once the butter's melted, add the flour and start whisking.
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Keep whisking for about 3 minutes. The flour will be completely dissolved into the butter to form a smooth, thick consistency. This is a roux, also known as a thickener.
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Add the broth, cream, and remaining salt and pepper.
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Turn the heat up to medium high and whisk until the liquid thickens to gravy consistency. This should take about 5 minutes.
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Add all the meatballs into the pan and let them cook until they're cooked through. This should take about 6 minutes.
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The meatballs are ready to serve. Enjoy!
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