Gluten free Swedish Meatballs... these aren't Ikea's, they're better.

I found this fabulous recipe here, made a few tweeks & decided to keep the recipe for posterity since bloggers tend to break my heart and move or delete things. While I was originally angling for an Ikea clone, these are so so so much better.

For the Meatballs -

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 cup almond meal/flour

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 onion, blended

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp butter or two scoops bacon fat

1 dash each of ground nutmeg, all spice, salt, & pepper.

Blended beef liver (oh yes, healthy way to sneak it in....do you dare?)

For the sauce - 

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp almond flour

1/2 cup beef broth

1/4 cup heavy cream

I used the onions "as is"... Optional step to cut some of the strong onion taste is to:

Melt one tbsp butter or one scoop bacon fat on medium heat and add the blended onion. Saute for about 2 minutes and set aside to cool. 

Mix all meatball ingredients thoroughly with hands. Here is a good chance to throw in some blended liver. It made the meatballs a little looser than anticipated and as you can see, the meatballs started coming apart when I cooked them. No biggie, we just had a few extra pieces, but next time I will probably compensate with a little more almond meal. 

Now it's time to cook the meatballs. Form 1 inch meatballs. Warm another tbsp of butter or scoop of bacon fat (bacon fat... do it!!!!!). Add half the meatballs and turn and saute until cooked. Since my meatballs ALWAYS brown way to quickly, I put a lid on the pot and let the meatballs steam for a few minutes after browning all sides. Meatballs should be done in 8-10 minutes. Remove the first batch and repeat with the remaining meatballs. 

Making the sauce. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a sauce pan or skillet, then add the almond flour. Cook for approximately 1-2 minutes or until the almond flour starts to take on a light peanut butter color. Stir in the beef broth and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Deglaze your meatball pan with a layer of beef broth and add to the gravy mixture. Add the cream and simmer for several minutes. Remove from heat and allow sauce to thicken. (I honestly had a bout of crazy trying to make this sauce because I decided to add more broth, etc. Twas a mess with us adding more broth, more cream, throwing in arrow root powder, and finally just calling it. Next time I will just follow the dang recipe). 

Serve the meatballs in sauce. Optional serve with a brown rice pasta. I like the bowtie or penne.