Easy One Pot Meatball Stroganoff Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best substitute for sour cream in stroganoff? ›

Greek yogurt is a healthy alternative to the traditionally used sour cream in beef stroganoff recipes, so you can be confident that your family is getting a satisfying, healthy meal. Fresh dill and paprika will provide a sweet, slightly smoky garnish to top off the dish.

Quartered mushrooms and a combination of pearl onions and shallots give the finished dish a more interesting texture and flavor. Adding gelatin to the chicken stock gives it more body, letting the sauce come together more tightly to coat the meat and noodles.

Stroganoff sauce has mushrooms, while Swedish meatball sauce does not. Another key difference is the seasoning for each sauce. Swedish meatballs are typically seasoned with spices like nutmeg and ginger, while Stroganoff sauce includes paprika, onion powder, and thyme.

One way to thicken beef stroganoff is with flour or cornstarch. These are both common cooking ingredients that will help create an excellent thickening agent for beef stroganoff recipes.

Mayonnaise. Here's an ingredient you probably have on hand: mayonnaise! You can use it as a cup-for-cup replacement for sour cream in most recipes—including baked goods! (Mayo adds a ton of moisture to things like cakes and muffins because it's made from eggs and oil.)

Not properly searing your meat when cooking it

Don't add the meat until the pan is hot or you won't get as good of a sear — that crispy, caramelized sear is key to a delicious plate of beef stroganoff.

What is stroganoff sauce made of? Stroganoff sauce is a sour cream gravy made with beef broth that's thickened with flour. It's flavoured with mustard and has mushrooms in it. I love the pale brown creamy colour against the deep golden brown seared beef!

There isn't one best cut for beef stroganoff, but you want to stick to tender, well-marbled cuts. Popular choices include boneless ribeye, sirloin, and tenderloin.

What do Italians call meatballs? ›

Called polpettes, Italian meatballs are often served sauceless and are much smaller than the meatballs you're probably used to. Traditional Italian meatballs typically contain equal portions of meat and soaked bread, and other additions such as egg and vegetables.

The Seasoning

While both varieties include ingredients such as grated onion and panade (milk-soaked bread) or bread crumbs, plus the usual salt and pepper, Swedish meatballs traditionally use spices like allspice, nutmeg, white pepper, and sometimes ground ginger as flavoring.

Sour cream can curdle if added directly to hot liquid. To prevent curdling, temper the sour cream by stirring a little of the hot liquid into it and then adding the warmed sour cream mixture to the pan. Buttered egg noodles (see below for details of our tasting) are the classic accompaniment to this recipe.

Cornstarch is a reliable and widely used thickening agent, that works in sauces, gravies, and soups. Composed of a long chain of starch molecules, it has the ability to absorb water and form a gel-like consistency, giving your beef stroganoff the desired thickness without altering the way it tastes.

The secret here is to wait to add the sour cream until the very end, temper it with a bit of the hot broth and then add it to the pan just long enough to warm it, as boiling can cause it to curdle.

Cottage Cheese

It's also perfect as a sour cream substitute with quite a bit less fat than the original. To get a similar consistency and taste to sour cream, add ¼ cup milk and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to 1 cup of small curd cottage cheese.

Whole milk yogurt works best and brings a big reduction in fat, plus more protein and calcium. Baked goods made with yogurt as a straight substitute for sour cream will turn out less tender, lighter in texture and have a tangier, less buttery flavor.

If you run out, you can make a sour cream substitute with no cooking and very little effort. All you need is three ingredients (milk, distilled white vinegar, and heavy cream) and 24-48 hours to let it ferment and thicken.

Full-fat Greek yogurt will offer the closest approximation of sour cream's flavor and texture, and can be used as a one-to-one replacement for sour cream. If you'd like, you can stir some heavy cream into any percentage of Greek yogurt to give it a somewhat richer body and higher fat content.