Product: IKEA® Swedish Meatballs

Rating: ★★★★☆

Price: HK$75/ pack

Low-Carb IKEA® Swedish Meatballs and Spaghetti Tartlets 

Every time after I finish shopping at IKEA, I will always buy some snacks from the canteen – the snacks are cheap, yet incredibly tasty and satisfying, and the Swedish meatballs are one of my favourites. Made with a mixture of pork and beef, the meatballs have a gorgeous meaty taste and are also impeccably seasoned; their texture is springy and bouncy, and they are the perfect afternoon snack! Due to a series of food scandals in recent years, IKEA has tightened its production monitoring process and reduced the number of suppliers in its production line. It also regularly tests its food products to ensure that all the meatballs only contain the ingredients listed on its packaging, so I won’t ever have to worry about any unknown ingredients in the food!

IKEA recently sent me a huge pack of IKEA Swedish meatballs (which will be available in stores from 6 July 2013 onwards), which is almost big enough to feed me for a week. I have been playing around with some meatball recipes, and have decided to share this recipe for Meatball and Spaghetti Tartlets, which are very easy to make and taste absolutely brilliant! This recipe was inspired by some girl friends who love eating pasta, but are recently trying to reduce their carbohydrates intake at dinner. Each Meatball and Spaghetti Tartlet only has a tiny amount of pasta in it, but it doesn’t taste or feel very different from eating meatball spaghetti. I hope you will enjoy this cheesy, yummy low-carb dish!

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Ingredients (Serves 2):

– 12 IKEA Swedish meatballs (frozen)

– 50g thin spaghetti or angel hair pasta

– 1 small can tomato purée

– 1 pack salad leaves

– 1 box yellow cherry tomatoes (you can use red cherry tomatoes if you cannot find these, but I think the yellow ones give the salad a nicer colour!)

– 100g grated Parmesan cheese

– 15ml vinaigrette dressing

– salt and pepper

– 1 24-cup muffin pan

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 225°C.

2. Boil the thin spaghetti or angel hair pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.

3. When the oven is ready, take 12 meatballs straight from the freezer and bake the meatballs in an ovenproof dish for 10 minutes.

4. Cut the yellow cherry tomatoes into quarters and mix with the salad leaves. Drizzle with vinaigrette dressing and lightly season with salt and pepper.

5. Line 12 cups in the muffin pan with grated Parmesan cheese. Take 3 strands of pasta, twirl them around your fingers and place them into each muffin cup. Sprinkle more cheese over it and put in another batch of pasta. Repeat until the muffin cup is around 3/4 full. Then, spoon 4 teaspoons of tomato purée into each of the 12 muffin cups.

6. Take 6 meatballs and cut them into halves. Put a halved meatball in each muffin cup and sprinkle more cheese on top. 

7. Bake in the oven for 5-8 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

8. Take the muffin pan out of the oven, and place 6 “tartlets” on each plate. Serve with salad and the rest of the meatballs on the side. Enjoy your easy-to-make, very delicious and low-carb meal!