IKEA Shared Their Swedish Meatball Recipe So You Can Make Them at Home

With millions of people having to transition to working from home over the past month, there’s no doubt been a surge in IKEA orders for desks, chairs, and other pieces of Swedish furniture that could be used to create a makeshift home office.

While following a set of wordless instructions to assemble a desk alongside someone you’ve been trapped inside with for the past month seems challenging, it sure looks like making IKEA’s recently-revealed Swedish meatball recipe isn’t. The Swedish furniture purveyor/food court recently unveiled the recipe for its signature dish to compensate for the fact that most of its labyrinthine locations across the world are closed during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

“We know that some people might be missing our meatballs, which is why we’ve released an at-home alternative which, using easily accessible ingredients, will help those looking for some inspiration in the kitchen,” Lorena Lourido, IKEA’s Country Food Manager in the UK said in a company press release cited by the Evening Standard. “Staying at home can be hard, but we want to help make everyone's lives that little bit easier and more enjoyable. Bon appétit or, smaklig måltid, as we say in Sweden!"

Thankfully, the meatball “instructions” provided by IKEA contain words, and only require six steps (five, really) to get from start to finish. The meatballs are made from a mixture of beef and pork mince, plus breadcrumbs, garlic, and onion (alongside an egg and milk for binding and salt and pepper for seasoning). The accompanying cream sauce uses butter, flour, vegetable and beef stocks, plus soy sauce and dijon mustard.

Once the balls are shaped, it just takes a quick fry to brown things up before a half hour of baking in the oven at 180ºC (356ºF). The “Iconic Swedish cream sauce” can be easily whipped up in a pan on the stove, where it will simmer and thicken. Finally, IKEA suggests serving alongside potatoes to starch up this Scandinavian feast.

So, yes. You can’t set foot in an IKEA to buy that desk lamp, but you can still bask in the joy of some Swedish meatballs from the comforts of home. Maybe just wait until after you finish assembling that new desk before digging in.