Lingonberry Sauce Recipe

Craving that sweet and tart sauce that's always served alongside Swedish meatballs at IKEA? This Lingonberry Sauce is similar to cranberry sauce, but made with a Nordic berry! If you can get your hands on lingonberries, you can make this delicious Scandinavian condiment with basic ingredients in about 15 minutes.

Fresh lingonberries can be hard to source, but if you can get your hands on some frozen lingonberries (sold at Scandinavian markets or online) you are in business! Lingonberries are very common Nordic berries that accompany lots of proteins, like duck breast, pork tenderloin, and wild game.

If you've ever been to IKEA and ordered Swedish meatballs, you've certainly had these on your plate! In many Nordic homes, they're served alongside some sort of cucumber salad, like this Norwegian agurksalat.

If you love Nordic recipes, be sure to try our Finnish salmon soup (lohikeitto), our Swedish shrimp toast (toast Skagen), or this Swedish almond cake (toscakaka) too!

❤️Why you'll love this

• Simple ingredients. Only 3 ingredients are needed to make your own lingonberry sauce at home, and they are all pantry staples, except for the lingonberries in most parts of the United States. 😉
• Quick & easy. This sauce can be ready in 15 minutes!
• No special equipment needed. All you really need is a small skillet or saucepan!

🥣Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you will need. You can find full quantities and nutrition facts in the recipe card.

✏️Ingredient Notes

• Water. You just need a little water to make this recipe. You can also add more water if you prefer a thinner consistency. For instance, if you're planning to top toast with it, make it a bit thicker. To top Swedish meatballs, it can have a bit more water in it.
• Lingonberries. If you can find them fresh, amazing! We live in Chicago, so we have to purchase them frozen like many other parts of the world.
• Sugar. Granulated white sugar works perfectly fine here, and you can use any sweetener you like.

📖Instructions

Add lingonberries to a small saucepan with a little bit of water. Cook over medium-low heat, and stir.

Add in sugar or sweetener and stir to dissolve.

Allow lingonberries to simmer for 10-15 minutes to thicken the sauce until the desired consistency is reached. Taste and adjust sweetener to suit your tastebuds.

After consistency is reached, remove from heat and set aside to cool before digging in.

Serve with Swedish meatballs or these Norwegian meatballs, salmon, mashed turnips, and Norwegian cucumber salad and more!

That's it! Enjoy!

✨Substitutions

If you want to improvise and still make this sauce, we have you covered!

• Sugar free version. Feel free to swap the sugar with allulose sweetener (affiliate) or any sugar replacement you like. We prefer allulose because it doesn't crystallize in the fridge. Please note, that allulose sweetener is typically slightly less sweet than sugar, so you will only need 1 cup of sugar to every 1 and ⅓ cups of allulose.
• No cook version. You can also easily make this without heating it at all. Simply add the sugar with the lingonberries and let it sit at room temperature, stirring every so often until the sugar dissolves. This will take about 2 hours if using frozen lingonberries.
• Other forms of lingonberries. If you're dying for the lingonberry flavor (and rumored benefits) but you can't seem to find fresh or frozen lingonberries, it might be worth trying these freeze dried lingonberries or these dried lingonberries. We haven't tried it ourselves, but we imagine you could rehydrate them with a little water.