How to Hack the IKEA Grocery Market
I’ve loved IKEA for a long time, not just for the LACK of my college units or the little table I’m sitting at right now, but I love them for their food . No trip to a Swedish supermarket is complete without meatballs, but their market is well worth a visit.
They have a great frozen section full of heart-shaped waffles and delicious potato brownies, and recently added a whole pound wall of corn syrup-free candy, but there are a few multi-purpose gems that I grab on almost every visit. Check out our favorites below and consider grabbing a few the next time you need a cute shower curtain or annoying blanket.
Make a cocktail
IKEA has a variety of delicious drinks, the most famous of which is DRYCK LINGON , their lingonberry drink. Not only can you buy a concentrated ruby elixir, you can also purchase elderberry and blueberry syrups to dilute without leaving your home.
Lingonberry syrup is perfect to add to a glass of sparkling wine or to replace cranberries in cosmo, but DRYCK FLÄDER (elderberry blossom concentrate) is the real star of the syrup. I don’t like it as a soft drink, but I love it when paired with vodka to make a cost-effective elderflower liqueur.
Don’t get me wrong, Saint Germain is a lovely little liqueur and has the prettiest bottle, but it’s a little pricey (usually $ 30-40) and I definitely don’t mix elderflower cocktails every day. Rather than buying a large bottle that will only be used from time to time, grab some IKEA elderflower syrup and mix with decent (but not overly expensive) vodka to make your own wannabe. Since Saint Germain and vodka are 20% and 40% ABV, respectively, just mix equal parts of each to get any amount of Saint Germain sublimation. The result is not as smooth and syrupy as the real things, but when mixed into a cocktail, you can only tell the difference.
For savory dishes, consider DRYCK NYPON , also known as rosehip drink. If you’ve never tried a rosehip drink before, it tastes and tastes like sweeter tomato juice. For a bloody brunch, try The Bloody Rose :
Ingredients:
- 2 oz. vodka
- 2.5 oz. DRYCK NYPON rosehip drink
- 1.5 oz. pickle (I used my homemade pickle)
- Srirachi’s healthy squirt
- 1/8 t of finished horseradish
- A couple of drops of Worcestershire sauce
Mix everything in a shaker with ice and shake. Strain into a glass lined with salted celery and serve with your favorite side dish.
But don’t let the fun stop there: just about every drink in the IKEA food market can make a good cocktail mixer, and your friends probably haven’t tried DRYCK BUBBEL ÄPPLE & LINGON with gin before .
Pump up the jam
If you’ve ever eaten at an IKEA food court, you’ve eaten lingonberry jam. The sweet, slightly tart jam goes well with these springy little meatballs, but it can be used outside of the kitchen. It will make a great sandwich spread, smoothie ingredient, and ice cream filling, but it really shines on the cheese platter.
You can keep it simple and serve as a condiment along with good cheddar and crackers, or you can make up and mix it with a fresh, tangy chevron, or add a little to grilled cheese. But for a truly delicious and mellow flavor, bake some on the brie wheel.
To prepare, cut the top rind off the brie wheel and place a good, healthy spoonful of canned food on top. Heat in an ovenproof dish at 350 ℉ for 20 minutes. Spread a little KNÄCKEBRÖD RÅG (rye crispbread) or SKORPOR KARDEMUMMA (crispy rolls with cardamom). After you fully enjoy it, try a different flavor like cloudberry or orange and elderberry.
Get a tube of strange fish
Every childhood trip I took at IKEA was interspersed with a trip to the grocery market where my mom was stocking up on CALLES, a creamy smoked fish caviar that came in a tube. When I was young I found it horrible (especially when she ate it straight out of the tube ), but as an adult I appreciated the sweet, salty, spicy pasta.
KALLES not only spreads it on sandwiches and crackers, but is also a great flavor enhancer filled with umami. For the really flavorful, funky vegetables that make these so delicious, mix a healthy stream of pasta with neutral-tasting butter and stir in potatoes, carrots, or broccoli. and roast. KALLES can also add salty punch to broths and sauces. Add a little to soups, add to a salad dressing with potatoes or pasta, or use it in place of anchovies for a slightly Swedish Caesar dressing :
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ teaspoon KALLES
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ cup good quality olive oil
Instructions:
- Mash the KALLES and garlic into a paste with a fork and whisk together with everything except the olive oil. Pour the mixture into the bowl of a food processor.
- With the food processor running, slowly pour in the olive oil until well combined. You can do it a day in advance.
I would advise you to take crab paste as well, except that the crab paste is on hiatus for at least a year, because Swedes are cold people who don’t care about my feelings.
Stock up on fast Monday
You’ve been buying bags of frozen meatballs for a long time, but their garbanzo bean vegetable balls (you know, GRÖNSAKSBULLAR ) are a new addition to the IKEA family of balls. With corn, peas and chunks of bell pepper, these flavorful guys are like a firmer, unroasted falafel.
They are quite good with mashed potatoes and gravy, but they have many other culinary uses. Leaving them intact makes a great pita sandwich or veggie roll, or you can add them to a pasta with a creamy hot sauce. You can also chop them up and add the chunks to veggie chili peppers, or use them as lean but filling tacos or burritos toppings. Plus, they keep frozen, which means you can extract as much as you need, making them very convenient meat-free quick meals.
Make the lightest crepe cake ever (requires some assembly)
The pancakes are delicious. I mean, they’re basically big stacks of pancakes with delicious toppings in between each thin layer. To be honest, I don’t have time to make that many pancakes, at least not often, so I don’t mind cheating and using IKEA’s PANNKAKOR (Swedish pancakes). Technically not pancakes, but technically delicious and much easier to make.
They fold into small frozen triangles, but that’s not a problem. Simply heat them up in the oven as directed and then unfold, letting them flatten and cool. Apply a thin layer of pastry cream (or maybe hazelnut filling ?) To each pancake and stack them. Let cool in refrigerator for an hour before serving.
So these are our favorite IKEA kitchen items. (Although I’m partial to their kitchen carts .) Do you have any favorite items on the market? Are you obsessed with lingonberries too? Let’s talk about meatballs in the comments.