How to Make Finnish Meatballs Recipe {Lihapullat}

5 from 2 votes

How to Make Finnish Meatballs Recipe {Lihapullat}

What's not to love about these easy Finnish meatballs in the oven recipe? Lihapullat (pronounced lee-a-pull-at), are juicy and tender meatballs made with ground meat, cream, egg, breadcrumbs, and spices.

Then served in a luscious honey mustard sauce with creamy mashed potatoes, also known lihapullat ja muusi (meatballs and mash).

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: Appetizer, lunch, Main Course, Snack, starter

Cuisine: Finnish

Keyword: beef, Finnish, LIHAPULLAT, mashed potatoes, meatballs

Servings: people

Calories: 580kcal

Author: Vikkie Lee

Equipment

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Butter
1 Onion finely diced
165 g Philadeplia cream cheese (1 tub = 6oz tub)
90 g Breadcrumbs ⅔ cup
1.5 teaspoon Paprika powder
½ teaspoon All spice
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Black pepper
454 g Minced beef 1 pound
1 tablespoon Oil to coat your hands while rolling meatball

Meatball Sauce

1 Onion finely diced
1 tablespoon Butter
2 tablespoon Plain flour (all purpose)
200 ml Boiling water ¾ cup
½ Beef stock cube
225 g Double cream 1 cup
2 teaspoon Honey
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoon Soy sauce
¾ tablespoon Tomato ketchup
1 pinch Black pepper

Instructions

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the diced onion.
Then stir while frying over low to medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent. Then set aside to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, egg, spices, seasoning, and cream cheese until you have a paste.
Add the beef mince and cooked onions, then squish with your hands until smooth and well combined.
Now coat your hands with oil and water and roll the meat into small golf ball size meatballs. This should create 24 meatballs, or make them smaller to serve more people.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until cooked through and golden, turning or basting halfway.
To prepare the sauce (which is optional), repeat step 1: soften the onions in butter. Then add the flour and stir while cooking for 2 minutes.
Slowly add a little beef broth at a time while stirring and cooking until thickened.
Stir in the double cream and the remaining gravy ingredients and stir while simmering for 1-2 minutes.
Then serve the meatballs on the mashed potatoes, pour over the gravy, and some lingonberry jam, which is a traditional accompaniment.

Video

Notes

To speed up the cooking time, you can sear the meatballs in a frying pan, then work on finishing meatballs in oven

If using milk or sour cream instead of cream cheese, leave this to rest for 30 mins to 1 hour until the crumbs have absorbed any excess moisture

If you can't find lingonberry jam in the UK, try picking it up in IKEA or Amazon, or you can swap it for cranberry sauce

For more flavour, I recommend not opting for an extra lean mincemeat

Try to roll the meatballs into even sizes so they cook evenly

Baste the meatballs halfway, or rotate them so they all get a coating of fat and crisp up while baking

Nutrition