Swedish Meatballs - Bork Bork

Okay...am I the only one who remembers the Muppets? And the Swedish Chef? Bork Bork! :D A favorite from my youth, to be sure! :D

Wait...why am I thinking all this????

WELLL.....a couple years ago, we moved from AZ to PA - well, BACK to PA. Before the move, we streamlined and sold a lot of our things...including our furniture. As a matter of fact - my husband sold our bed right out from under me! We hadn't planned on selling the mattress too...but someone said they would give us our price on the furniture if we included the mattress - it was 10 years old...we let it go. And slept on the floor that night, yes. Well, I digress. Since we had sold all of our furniture, when we got to PA (and after our lovely stint in a townhouse rental with no real furniture except our bed we bought when we got here!) we bought a house. A blank slate. We needed almost everything. :D

Being back in PA meant we would do shopping at IKEA. We love IKEA. Our kids love IKEA - who wouldn't love a store that has childcare, huh? We loved looking, dreaming, scheming, coming up with ideas on what to do and how to do it. But I think the favorite for the kids would be after we would finish shopping, we'd pick them up from the child care room and then go upstairs to the cafeteria and have lunch. My eldest's favorite, by far, was the swedish meatballs in gravy with roasted red potatoes. Little tiny balls of meat, smothered in a creamy dreamy sour cream gravy. Makes my mouth water just thinking about them. IKEA even has a little food store in it where you can buy the premade meatballs, and the sauce mix and make them at home. And I did, often. Well, until January when I went gluten free. Of course, premade meatballs have bread crumbs in them, and a cream sauce mix would have wheat flour in them. Yes. They do. BOOO HOOOOOO!!!!

My husband made swedish meatballs a few times, and while the meatball was right, the gravy just wasn't the same. The following recipe is part his, part mine, but all delicious. It started again a few nights ago, we mentioned IKEA and my daughter said "I want swedish meatballs". So...with the love of my daughter in my heart, and 2 lbs. of ground turkey defrosted, I set to work to create a substitute for IKEA Swedish Meatballs.

Please note, I use powdered spices in this recipe - and while normally, I'm a purist using whole ingredients, I detest watching my children pick out onions and stuff from their food! Hence the powdered spices in meatballs! :D

Bork Bork.

Swedish Meatballs in Sour Cream Gravy

2 lbs ground meat (turkey, beef, chicken)
2 Tsp garlic powder
2 Tsp onion powder
1 Tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 Tsp ground nutmeg (freshly, if you have the means)
dash of salt & pepper
1 egg
1/2 Cup gluten-free bread crumbs (I use the breadcrumbs I make from Gluten-Free Flax Bread)

1 boullion cube (I use Hormel Herb-Ox brand as it is on their gluten-free list)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup light cream or whole milk
1 cup sour cream


In a large bowl, mix meat, spices, gluten-free bread crumbs and egg together.

In a large skillet, preheat with 2 tbs olive oil. Using a small cookie scoop (or tbs measure) make 3/4" meatballs and place around the preheated pan. Cover and allow to cook for about 5 minutes - or until the bottoms are slightly crusted (the tops will be "steamed" from covering the pan). Carefully flip the meatballs around. Cover and cook another 5 to 10 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through.

Meanwhile, in a microwave safe bowl heat the boullion cube and water (I crushed up my cube slightly so that it would dissolve). Mix the water/boullion mixture with the cream and sour cream well. Set aside.

Uncover meatballs and add the sour cream mixture...making sure to scrape up bits from the pan as you stir it in. Allow it to come to temperature, and cook almost to boiling for about 3 minutes - stirring to coat all the meatballs as you do this.

Serve immediately. I served with oven roasted red potatoes - I cut into bite sized chunks, added about 3 Tbs olive oil, salt and pepper and mixed....baked for about 40 minutes in a 400 degree oven...stirring every 20 minutes or so. :D

ENJOY :D