When I was a kid, my favorite food in the whole world was Stouffer’s frozen Swedish meatballs. Eventually I started to feel bad about all the meat I was eating and have now been a pescetarian (fish-eating vegetarian) for about ten years. In the time that I have been eating vegetarian, there have been vast improvements in the quality of soy-based and mycoprotein-based meat substitutes — and there are a number of companies that make quality meatless meatballs. Using these, I developed the following recipe to fill that craving I used to have for the old Stouffer’s meatballs — this recipe would also work just as well with real meatballs, of course!
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Ingredients:
1 bag egg noodles
1 bag meatless meatballs (your favorite brand)
1/4 mushrooms, finely chopped
1 shallot OR 1/2 a small onion, chopped
1.5 c vegetable stock (made from boullion cubes or vegebase) — prepare beforehand, keep hot
3 T butter
3 T flour
1/4 t salt
1/8 t nutmeg
1/8 t allspice
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To make the sauce:
Start by making a simple roux: on low heat, melt butter in a large saucepan and stir in flour one tablespoon at a time, making sure to stir out all the lumps. Add shallots and cook until the mixture begins to bubble. Add the mushrooms, then remove the mixture from heat and stir in vegetable stock and seasonings. Return to heat and let boil for one minute, stirring until the sauce thickens. At this point you can stir in your sour cream and add your meatballs, and just let simmer on low heat until the meatballs are cooked through (if from frozen, about 15 minutes).
While the meatballs are heating up, put a pot of water to boil and follow the instructions on the package of egg noodles.
Drain once cooked, and add noodles to sauce mixture (I hope you used a large enough pan! — if you didn’t, you can of course keep the noodles and meatballs/sauce separate for guests to serve themselves).
That’s it! Enjoy — this recipe serves 4-6.