Chestnut Recipes: 10+ ideas to cook chestnuts around holidays
Chestnuts are a typical fall ingredient with an earthy yet sweet-nutty flavor. Perfect for sweet or savory recipes, cook them in different ways, especially around holidays.
Chestnuts are a typical fall ingredient you can't do without. Mainly cultivated in Asia, Europe, and North Africa, they are very popular around Europe. They are rustic, earthy yet slightly sweet-nutty in flavor. Some variety of chestnuts can be eaten raw, but cooking them bring out its rich and intense flavor, especially when oven-roasted or boiled.
Super versatile nuts, you can use chestnuts in both sweet and savory recipes, from snacks, main dishes, spreads to desserts. However, this autumn ingredient is often associated to holiday recipes too, so don't be surprised if Thanksgiving and Christmas menus might include nutty-tasting dishes. Some examples? Make chestnuts the stars of stuffings, roasts, vegetarian pastas, soups, risottos and mouth-watering desserts.
Moreover, if you have an abundance of these earthy nuts, remember to store them properly. Ready to find out how to cook them through our tasty 10+ chestnut recipes to make this fall?
With their sweet, nutty flavor and soft texture, oven-roasted chestnuts are a perfect snack to enjoy over the Christmas holidays – no open fire needed! Roasted chestnuts are incredibly popular in Italy from the start of fall all the way through the Christmas season.
Because of their availability from October to December, boiled chestnuts are the ultimate fall snack food. So, if you’re looking for something tasty to serve this fall season, then look no further. Besides being enjoyed as a snack, they are also added as an ingredient to both sweet and savory recipes such as Thanksgiving turkey stuffing, Christmas cookies, cakes or chestnut strudel.
If you've never tried chestnut purée, you've been missing out. This wonderfully sweet, nutty spread is incredibly popular throughout Europe, especially Italy which is one of the top chestnut producers in the world. Super easy to make, simply simmer the chestnuts in a mixture of vanilla-flavored milk until smooth.
If you want to make a decadent, luxurious treat this winter, whip up a batch of marron glacé. These ultra-sweet, nutty treats have roots in France and northern Italy, where they're enjoyed around the holiday season.
This chestnut salad is a simple and ideal side dish that brings to your table all the flavors and aromas of the fall. It is a great idea to make use of this seasonal fruit and it can be an original side dish for a family meal or a dinner with friends.
The chestnut strudel is a greedy dessert, the fall variant of the classic apple strudel. In this version, a fragrant shortcrust pastry shell is filled with chestnuts, almond flakes, rum and cocoa, for an intense and very aromatic final result.
Historically, chestnuts were quite popular in Italy and were known as poor man’s food. Chestnuts are the edible fruits of the deciduous tree, Castanea sativa. They are also known as châtaigne or marron (usually a fruit of higher quality). They can be eaten raw or cooked, and are also found in stores in the canned form, a great way to enjoy them at any time of the year.
Castagnaccio cake is a traditional recipe of Italian cuisine and it is a soft dessert prepared with chestnut flour and pine nuts, raisins, walnuts and rosemary, widespread in Tuscany, Piedmont, Liguria and Puglia. The birthplace of Castagnaccio can not be established with certainty because the chestnut is widespread in these regions, but we know that it is a dessert with peasant origins whose recipe is handed down from family to family with different peculiarities.
The Rumaki is a nutritionally rich starter or appetizer, made with marinated chicken livers and water chestnuts, which are wrapped in bacon, and are served on a toothpick. The appetizer is usually one bite size. It is usually served in many tiki restaurants, parties and holiday celebrations. Over the years, a wide variety of adaptations have been made to the recipe, resulting in many interpretations of the dish.
Chestnuts are the edible fruits of the deciduous tree, Castanea sativa. They are quite popular in Italy around Christmas time and were known historically as poor man’s food. These days they’re freely available from October to December, making it a popular food during this time of year.
The cake with chestnut flour and apples is the reinterpretation of the great classic of home pastry, one of those desserts that smells of home and family. Soft, fragrant and with a delicate flavor, the cake with chestnut flour and apples is perfect for breakfast dipped in a cup of cappuccino, as an afternoon snack with a good tea, or served at the end of a meal maybe accompanied by a warm and inviting custard. This version, totally gluten-free, requires the dough to be made with chestnut flour, which will give a particularly sweet and aromatic note to your cake; and the ricotta cheese, added in place of the butter, will make it soft and super delicious. Simple and very fast, let’s find out how to prepare it by following our recipe step by step.
