Swedish meatballs are the whole reason people brave the IKEA cafeteria — that nutmeg-warmed gravy is doing some serious emotional labor. Most vegan versions just swap real meat and cream for packaged substitutes. Mine skips both: shiitakes and beans stand in for the meat, and an olive oil roux with plant milk and miso builds the gravy from scratch. Same cozy plate, none of the ingredients you’d need a dictionary for.
I love hearty vegan dinner recipes like this one….that uses pantry staples and can easily be paired with a simple vegetable like oven roasted purple cabbage, roasted broccoli, or an easy green salad for a fabulous dinner.
Vegan Meatball Ingredients
- Spices: oregano, allspice, nutmeg and black pepper bring on all the cozy, savory flavors you’d expect in a Swedish meatball.
- Shiitake mushrooms: Sub with another type of mushroom if needed, but don’t snooze on the mushrooms! The flavor and texture give this recipe all the umami a vegan meatball needs.
Step by Step Baked Vegan Swedish Meatballs
Preheat oven to 425 and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
Mince the mushrooms and onion. Add to a hot pan with a swirl of oil and saute for about 5 minutes, until shrunk in volume by about half.
Grate garlic and stir in with the salt until fully incorporated and fragrant.
Mash beans with a fork or potato masher. A few chunks are ok, but mostly you want a pasty situation with no whole beans.
Add tomato paste, spices, ground flax, parsley and cooked mushroom mixture to the beans and mix. Continue to mix until no single ingredients are left on the bottom of the bowl.
Then, use a small cookie scoop or two tablespoons to drop batter onto a large rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment.
With wet hands, roll each into a smooth ball.
Bake in preheated 425 oven for 15 minutes. Flip and bake for another 15 minutes until they’re golden on the outside.
Dairy-free Swedish Meatball Sauce
While the meatballs bake in the oven, you’ll have plenty of time to make the sauce.
Flour: Any type of all purpose flour that you tolerate will work in this recipe including gluten-free. The rest of the ingredients for the “meat”balls and sauce are gluten-free so this would be an easy swap for an entire gluten-free meal.
Use the same skillet you used for the mushrooms. You don’t even need to wash it. Use medium/medium-low heat and swirl the oil into a hot pan. Sprinkle in the flour.
Create a roux with the olive oil and flour. Stir constantly with a whisk, as the mixture turns into paste.
Add the broth a few tablespoons at a time, whisking until all liquid has been absorbed before adding more broth. Going slowly will help create a smooth and non-lumpy sauce.
After the last addition of veggie broth has been well incorporated into the sauce, add the mustard and tamari.
Continue to whisk until everything has blended in.
Now pour in half the plant milk and whisk until incorporated. Then add all the rest but 2 tablespoons of the plant milk and whisk that in.
Dissolve the miso into the remaining milk, using a fork to break up any chunks.
Pour the miso mixture into the pan and whisk until the finished sauce is silky smooth.
Transfer cooked vegan meatballs into the sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley and sprinkled with black pepper if desired.
Debra’s Pro Tips
- When mixing the batter, use the parsley as your barometer. It’s easy to see if there’s a bit of green scattered throughout, and that lets you know the spices and ground flax are well incorporated too.
- I like the smaller meatballs (allows you to eat more sauce!) so I use about 1-1.5 tablespoons batter for each. They will get firm sooner than larger “meat” balls, so the bake time will vary. Larger balls may need more than half an hour to cook all the way through.
- Store extra balls separately from the sauce. Both in airtight containers in the fridge for up to a week. Reheat on the stovetop over medium-low until heated through.
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📖 Recipe
Baked Vegan Swedish Meatballs with Beans
Equipment
Ingredients
Vegan Swedish Meatballs
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms small dice
- 1 small onion small dice
- 3 cloves garlic grated
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 (14.5-oz) can pinto beans rinsed and drained
- 1 (14.5-oz) can kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- ⅓ cup ground flax
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
Vegan Swedish Meatballs Sauce
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 1.5 cups vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoon tamari
- 2 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 cup almond milk
- 2 teaspoon miso
- 2 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
Meatballs
- Preheat oven to 425 and line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper
- Prep onion and mushroom, cutting into small dice. Saute in olive oil over medium heat for 3 minutes. Grate garlic over pan and continue to stir until fragrant.
- In a large bowl, mash beans until mostly creamy with a bit of chunks, but no whole beans. Add in tomato paste, flax, spices, mushroom mixture and parsley and stir to thoroughly combine.
- Use a small cookie scoop or two spoons to drop balls (approx 1.5 tablespoons each) onto prepared baking sheet. Wet your hands and roll into smooth balls.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Flip onto other side and bake for another 15 minutes until firm and brown on the outside.
Sauce
- Use the same skillet from the mushrooms, heat to medium and whisk olive oil with flour until it forms a paste.
- Add vegetable broth a little at a time, whisking between each addition, incorporating the liquid fully, with a uniform consistency, before adding more.
- Add in the tamari, mustard and most of the milk. Leave about 2 tablespoons of the milk and use it to dilute the miso paste before adding that to the sauce as well. Continue to whisk as everything mixes in and the sauce thickens to a creamy consistency.
- When the meatballs are done in the oven, add them to the sauce and gently mix. Garnish with chopped parsley and taste for seasoning…I like to sprinkle a bit of freshly ground black pepper on top.
Notes
- if making ahead, store vegan meatballs and sauce separately in airtight containers. Gently reheat on the stovetop with meatballs in the sauce until heated through.
- meatballs can be made ahead BEFORE cooking and frozen. Drop and roll into balls, place on parchment and flash freeze for about an hour. Then transfer them into zip top storage bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Note
The nutrition calculations were done using online tools. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you used. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information is accurate, complete and useful.
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