George Hearty, meaty, savoury, juicy, and bursting with Swedish flavours, these Authentic GF & Vegan Köttbullar (Swedish Meatballs) are insanely delicious, won’t fall apart and aren’t mushy! Super easy, made with very simple ingredients, and can easily be made 100% gluten-free. They are perfect served as a main course with The Best Ever Vegan Swedish Brown Gravy – Ikea Style, lingonberry jam, potatoes, and fresh parsley.
As you may know, we already have a recipe for Christmas Spiced Vegan Meatballs or Julköttbullar. Go and check it out if you’re looking for Christmas spiced vegan meatballs! Serve these with our super yummy Vegan Swedish Beetroot Salad. You’ll love them both!
These Vegan Köttbullar (Swedish Meatballs) are just like the meatballs I grew up eating, but 100% vegan, cruelty-free & optionally gluten-free! So amazing and flavourful!
Here we’re also going to show you the most delicious possible way of eating these vegan Swedish meatballs. We have created an amazing dish, recreating the Authentic Swedish Meatballs (Vegan & Gluten-Free Style) served with potatoes, Swedish Brown Gravy (Ikea Style), and lingonberry jam, but with a modern fun twist, making THE VERY BEST VEGAN & GLUTEN-FREE POTATO WAFFLES that are so crispy and yummy! YOU’LL LOVE THIS CREATION AND WON’T BE ABLE TO STOP YOURSELF! this combo is highly addictive!!! Here you can see a picture:
They hold up well in the brown sauce and are perfect served with lingonberry jam, potatoes, and fresh parsley. They will surely become a family favourite!
1 small 180 g serving of these amazing Vegan Köttbullar (Swedish Meatballs) will provide you with 35% of the protein, 19% of the iron, 37% of the calcium, and 11% of the dietary fibre that you need in a day (based on a 2000 kcal per day diet). See more detailed nutrition facts below.
If you’re interested in another vegan gravy recipe that goes very well with these vegan meatballs, check out our Creamy Vegan Green Peppercorn Gravy. You’ll love it!
Köttbullar are smaller and have a different flavour compared to Italian meatballs and are nearly always served with a cream sauce.
These Vegan Köttbullar (Swedish Meatballs) taste even better the next day!
More Vegan Meatball Recipes To Try:
- The Best Gluten-Free & Vegan Italian Meatballs
- Gluten-Free & Vegan Italian Meatballs in Rustic Tomato Sauce
- Vegan Italian Meatballs in Tomato Cheese Sauce
- Vegan Christmas Spiced Swedish Meatballs
- Vegan Swedish Meatballs – Christmas Special Using Store-Bought Vegan Mince
If you liked this Vegan Köttbullar (Swedish Meatballs) and are interested in more recipes of vegan meats, you need to check out our new cookbook & e-book “ALL PLANTS: The Food You Love, The Vegan Way”. In chapter 3 “VEGAN BUTCHERY”, you can find recipes for 13 incredibly delicious vegan meats, some of them gluten-free too! Here’s a list:
- VEGAN BRATWURSTS
- VEGAN HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGES
- VEGAN WHEAT FILET MIGNON
- VEGAN BBQ RIBS
- THE BEST VEGAN BURGER
- BAKE-ON: A SUPER QUICK&EASY BACON MADE OF TOFU
- SWEDISH CHRISTMAS HAM
- CHICKUN: 2 DIFFERENT WAYS TO MAKE VEGAN CHICKEN: VEGAN THYME & ROSEMARY CUTLETS AND SPICY BUFFALO CHICKEN TENDERS
- SEITAN BACON
- VEGAN MORTADELLA
- BAVARIAN MORTADELLA
- SEITAN PEPPERONI
- and more!!
We also have an entire chapter named “Dairy is Scary” dedicated to vegan dairy substitutes, from homemade coffee creamers to 3 kinds of homemade yoghurts, homemade tofu, 4 types of cultured vegan cheese, and 5 easy and quick varieties of vegan cheese including feta, cheddar, Buffalo Mozzarella, etc. If you’re a cheese lover, you will love our cookbook! Read more about it here.
If you liked this recipe for The Best GF & Vegan Köttbullar (Swedish Meatballs), check out our Succulent Vegan Filet Mignon, our Amazing Vegan Seitan Steaks, or the rest of our Vegan Meat & Fish Recipes. You’ll love them all!
Check out as well our Nut-Free Vegan Parmesan Cheese, our Vegan Buffalo Mozzarella, our Gluten-Free Vegan Mortadella, our Fluffy Homemade Vegan Bagels, our Vegan Mayonnaise (Plain & Spicy), our Easy to Make Vegan Béarnaise Sauce, our Oil-Free & Healthy Vegan Béarnaise Sauce, our Vegan Pink Sauce – Beetalicious, our Garlic Vegan Sauce, and our Vegan Pesto Sauce. And if you want to find some REALLY EPIC SAUCES AND DRESSINGS RECIPES, ALONG WITH OVER 150 OTHER RECIPES, check out our very first cookbook ALL PLANTS: The Food You Love, The Vegan Way, which includes over 150 satisfying recipes to feed all the members of your household (including your dogs!). It’s available internationally as a hardcover on Book Depository (with free delivery worldwide), Walmart, and in many other bookstores! Yay! Click here and here to learn more. You can also purchase it as a downloadable e-book (pdf) in our Store (currently ON SALE!), and our Etsy Shop (also on sale there!).
The Best GF & Vegan Köttbullar (Swedish Meatballs)
Enjoy friends! If you make this recipe, please snap a photo and tag @veganvvocals and #veganvvocals on Instagram! We’d also love it if you would leave a comment below, and give the recipe a rating! Thanks so much!
Equipment
Ingredients
Köttbullar
- 1 kg extra-firm tofu, pressed
- 1 onion, very finely chopped
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp raw sugar
- 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
- 2 tsp beetroot powder
- 3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce, or tamari for gluten-free option
- 1 tsp liquid smoke
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 4 tbsp old-fashioned mustard, don't skip!
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg, freshly shaved (don't use store-bought ground nutmeg, shave it yourself, it makes a huge difference in flavour!), don't skip!
- 2 tsp caraway seeds, freshly ground (grind them yourself as well!), don't skip!
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, or gluten-free all-purpose flour for gluten-free option. The gluten-free flour blend we used already contained xanthan gum, check ingredients and if it doesn't contain any thickening agent, you'll need to add
Pan-frying
- 3 tbsp vegan butter
- 3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce, or tamari for gluten-free option
Toppings
- The Best Ever Vegan Swedish Brown Gravy – Ikea Style
- A few spoonfuls lingonberry jam, very important topping!
- fresh parsley
Instructions
Köttbullar
- Press the tofu manually or using a tofu press until most of the water has been drained.
- In a large bowl, place the pressed tofu, and using a potato masher, mash the tofu until it's broken up into small pieces. Stir in the very finely chopped onion, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, beetroot powder, Japanese soy sauce or tamari, liquid smoke, nutritional yeast, old-fashioned mustard, freshly shaved nutmeg, and freshly ground caraway seeds. Mix using a sturdy spatula until well combined. Try the mixture and adjust the seasoning to your own taste before adding the flour.
- Once you have adjusted the seasoning, add the all-purpose flour, or gluten-free all-purpose flour for gluten-free option, to the mixture, and continue mixing, using a sturdy spatula, until a dough comes together. If the mixture is too wet, add a little more flour. The gluten-free flour blend we used already contained xanthan gum, check ingredients and if it doesn't contain any thickening agent, you'll need to add.
- Using a small cookie scoop, make balls out of the dough until you have used all the mixture. Swedish meatballs are supposed to be on the smaller side, so don't make them too big! Place the meatballs on a parchment paper-lined tray.
- We made exactly 67 meatballs, which would be around 8 servings.
Pan-frying
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, and cook the meatballs in batches.
- For every batch of approximately 8 -10 meatballs, we added to a hot non-stick skillet 1/2 tbsp of vegan butter and 1/2 tbsp of Japanese soy sauce or tamari. Pan-fry the meatballs until golden on all sides, 4 to 7 minutes per batch.
- Place the pan-fried meatballs back onto the parchment paper-lined baking tray. Let them rest until room temperature.
- Refrigerate the meatballs for a minimum of 2 hours to overnight. This is an important step to achieve the right texture, do not omit! The more time you refrigerate them, the better the texture of the meatballs will get!
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/356ºF.
- Place the chilled meatballs back onto the parchment paper-lined baking tray and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes.
- Serve them with our Vegan Swedish Brown Gravy – Ikea Style and lingonberry jam. Enjoy these insanely delicious meatballs!
- Here we're also going to show you the most delicious possible way of eating these vegan Swedish meatballs. We have created an amazing dish, recreating the Authentic Swedish Meatballs (Vegan & Gluten-Free Style) served with potatoes, Swedish Brown Gravy (Ikea Style), and lingonberry jam, but with a modern fun twist, making THE VERY BEST VEGAN & GLUTEN-FREE POTATO WAFFLES that are so crispy and yummy! YOU'LL LOVE THIS CREATION AND WON'T BE ABLE TO STOP YOURSELF! this combo is highly addictive!!!
Notes
- Store in an air-tight container, in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.
- It’s essential that you refrigerate the meatballs for a minimum of 2 hours to overnight after pan-frying them and before baking them. This is an important step to achieve the right texture, do not omit! The more time you refrigerate them, the better the texture of the meatballs will get!
- We made this recipe twice, one using both plain all-purpose wheat flour and the second using gluten-free all-purpose flour. Both ways the meatballs turned out delicious!
Nutrition
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These vegan Swedish meatballs taste great and the ingredient list is also great. 10/10! Everybody loved them!
These are the very best vegan Swedish meatballs I have tried and I’ve tried many. Very delicious and the gravy compliments them really nicely. 5 stars!