Plant-based Swedish plant balls (Köttbullar-INSPIRED)
🌱🧆🇸🇪 Grandma Sita learns with Annike how to make delicious Swedish-style plant balls made from leftover rye bread. This easy plant-based recipe is inspired by the popular Köttbullar which is a classic Swedish dish. It has just the right consistency, and an amazing taste and will be loved by adults and children alike!
😋 You can change the recipe according to your taste, so have fun experimenting, but don’t forget to cook up some complementary plant-based food like salad or mashed potatoes.
🧓🏻💛 Grandma Sita’s tip: Leftover bread can be soaked in some liquid (oat drink) and puffs up when cooked, making these plant balls extra soft and juicy.
➡️ If you’d ask ten Swedes for the standard Köttbullar recipe, you’d receive a different answer from each of them. That is because there is no standard, each Swedish family adjusts the recipe and twitches it a bit according to their own taste buds: a little more of this spice, a little less of that.
🤗🌎 Grandma Sita looks forward to the weekends because that’s the time she invites a grandchild into her kitchen to cook popular dishes from their countries and together get inspired to twist them into delicious new plant-based meals. Sustainability tastes great everywhere!
INGREDIENTS
1 small broccoli, grated
2 small aubergines, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 tray of mushrooms, chopped
1 bunch of spring onion, chopped
1 bunch of parsley, chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper
2 half rye bread, soaked
*In Scandinavia, it is relatively cold, so grain-like rye is much better suited for the climate. So that means we commonly use rye flour, most commonly in bread.
FOR THE SALAD
2 apples, chopped
2 carrots, grated
1 cucumber, chopped
1 fennel, chopped
Balsamic dressing (optional)
Salt and pepper
METHOD
1. Wash all vegetables well. Chop aubergines, bell peppers, mushrooms, spring onion, and parsley. Grate the flowering head of the broccoli (couscous-sized granules), and peel chop the stalk.
2. Cut the rye bread into cubes and soak them in an oat drink.
3. Heat vegetable oil in a pot. Sauté all chopped veggies until soft and add soaked rye bread. Mix until well combined. Season with salt, and pepper.
4. Pour the mix into a bowl, add chopped parsley (optional), and rolled into small balls, with a diameter of about 2 or 3 centimeters. Coat them with breadcrumbs, for an added crunch (optional).
5. Lay the plant balls on a baking tray and bake them for about 20 minutes/200C.
6. Optional step: Heat a tablespoon of veggie oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the baked plant balls and fry on both sides, for about 3 minutes each until brown.
7. Serve with salad, mashed potatoes, or anything else you like, and Bon appetite!
DID YOU KNOW?
Traditionally, Köttbullar (meatballs) are served with potatoes or pasta and rårörda lingon (lingonberry jam). Sometimes a pickled vegetable such as cucumber, or pressgurka (pressed cucumber) may be added on the side. As for the occasion, Swedish meatballs may be considered a festive food; you’ll surely find it on any Swedish table during a holiday or a celebration. There’s even a Christmas version of meatballs called julköttbullar, and you’d bake these ones rather than fry them.