Give these delicious vegetarian Swedish meatballs a try!

Fancy some Swedish Meatballs? You are definitely missing out if you haven’t tried Quorn’s Swedish Style balls.

Although not necessarily very popular with us Maltese, Swedish Meatballs is a dish loved by many overseas. It is one of those feel good recipes. A nice portion of meat and a nice portion of cream. Few things are as perfect as that. What they are not, however, is Swedish. 

Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish and originate from the Ottoman Empire. King Charles XII of Sweden (1682 – 1718) introduced this recipe to the Swedish from his trip to Turkey. We hope the Turkish do not feel too cheated on the name of this recipe.

This Quorn Swedish Style Balls from Whatsinstore in a creamy sauce recipe is one of our favourite from all the recipes we did with the Quorn products. We took the opportunity to try the new Elmlea Plant-based Double cream in this recipe, also from Whatsinstore. We loved it. It is this double cream that gives this recipe it’s thick creaminess. It also means lactose-intolerant people can enjoy this recipe all the same as those who have no problems digesting lactose. 

Swedish meatballs are usually served with a generous portion of potatoes; usually mashed or boiled, and a sweet side of lingonberry jam. We could not find lingonberry jam so we opted for some blackberry jam instead which was actually keto friendly. Fun fact: lingonberry is also known as cowberry and comes from the same family of fruit as cranberries, blueberries, huckleberries and bilberries. If you manage to come across lingonberry jam, let us know where you found it in the comments below!

I was in the mood for mashed potatoes and wanted to avoid the hassle of getting potatoes, peeling, washing, boiling and then mashing, so I opted for Knorr’s mashed potatoes instead. Knorr mashed potatoes take minutes to prepare. You just need to heat 250g of milk in a pan. 

When at boiling point, turn off and mix in the Knorr packet and 100 ml of water. Stir until you get the consistency you’d expect from mashed potatoes. It really is that easy. We actually enjoy using Knorr Gran Pure mashed potatoes in our recipes and we have recently tried our hands at Chocolate Truffles made from mashed potatoes. Spoiler alert: they were delicious and took less than an hour to make.

To avoid the hassle of finding a vegetarian meatball recipe, we opted for Quorn Swedish Style Balls. You can use these Swedish Style Balls to make Creamy Swedish meatballs or even use these to make spaghetti meatballs. It is really up to you. We felt like a creamy meatball recipe so we opted for the cream Swedish meatballs recipe using Quorn products. 

Although we kept the sauce vegan, the meatballs themselves are vegetarian and not vegan. The balls are 130 calories and 4.6 g of fat per 100 grams keeping them low calorie and low fat, which is excellent. The most important fact is that they are low in C02e which means they are less harmful to our planet than beef meatballs.

It’s time to cook!

Ingredients:

300 grams Swedish Style balls

3 tbsp of vegan butter

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

300 ml Knorr vegetable stock

150ml Elmlea Plant-based Double cream

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Sides:

1 Knorr Gran Pure Mashed Potatoes packet

250 ml vegan milk

100 ml water

Blackberry jam 

Broccoli

 Method:

1. Cook 300g of Quorn Swedish Style Balls in the oven for 10 minutes on 200oC
2. When cooked, fry the balls in 1 tbsp of oil until golden brown
3. Remove the meatballs and melt the butter in the pan on low heat
4. When melted, add the flour and whisk until you find a thick saucy consistency.
5. Add the vegetable stock and keep whisking. Remove all lumps.
6. Bring to a boil.
7. Add the double cream, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Keep whisking.
8. Add the Quorn Swedish Style balls to the sauce. Stir.
9. Heat 250 ml of vegan milk in a small pot. When boiling, remove from heat.
10. Add 1 packet of Knorr Gran Pure Mashed Potatoes and 100 ml of water
11. Mix until a mashed potato consistency is reached.
12. Serve the Swedish meatballs in their creamy sauce with broccoli, mashed potatoes and jam. Garnish with chopped parsley.