When done properly, Swedish meatballs can make for a wonderful dinner. Surprisingly, it’s also a dish that very few frozen food makers are able to mess up. We’ve tried plenty of Swedish meatball dishes that we thought would be mediocre at best but then turned out to be pretty darn tasty. In fact, the Smart Ones dish that we’re reviewing today is a similar story: We checked it out a while back and we ended up really enjoying it.
So why, then, are we reviewing this again? Well, we recently encountered our previous review, and we started having doubts. Did we really find this to be as tasty as our review suggests? We wanted to check in and see if this dish is as good as our review claims it is. So yes, today we’re doing a re-review of the Smart Ones Pasta with Swedish Meatballs, which is part of the Tasty American Favorites sub-line.
Cooking this is a snap, a cinch, or a breeze, depending on your preferred terminology. No matter which phrase you pick, this simply has to be heated in a microwave, stirred, and tossed back in for a little bit longer. Cook times will vary based on the wattage of your microwave, but we’ve scanned the package and included cooking instructions at the bottom of this review.
The last time we reviewed this, we noted that our serving had only four meatballs. At least Smart Ones is consistent on this — we once again have only four meatballs in our meal. As far as flavor, though, these meatballs are quite good. These are pork-based meatballs rather than beef, and that means they have a slightly sweeter flavor with a slightly lighter consistency. We actually really like that, and we think it works well with this particular sauce.
The sauce is an ever-so-slightly-creamy affair that tastes strongly of onions and mushrooms, though with a sugary sweetness buried in the undertones. As we mentioned in the previous paragraph, this complements the pork-based meatballs really well.
This dish is mostly pasta, and the pasta isn’t anything special. It’s a limp shape that seems like an attempt to be a spiral that ended up flat. Still, because of the sauce, it’s enjoyable to eat nonetheless.
This is a nice and light meal, at just 290 calories, but the sodium is just a tad high. With 790 mg of sodium, this is just a little bit higher than the average frozen meal (we consider 700 mg to be about average). Still, this is an appealing dish for calorie-cutters who don’t mind a little extra sodium.
The Smart Ones Pasta with Swedish Meatballs holds up to our second taste test. In fact, we think this might be one of the best meals in the Smart Ones line. Whether you’re looking to kill a Swedish meatball craving or you’re just looking for something fast to cook that’s low in calories, this dish is a great option.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Smart Ones frozen meal, check out our package scans below.
