It’s time to enjoy roasted chestnuts! Chestnuts are in season from autumn through to winter. Did you know how to avoid the chestnut from exploding in the oven? Just cut a deep slit into the shell before roasting. When the chestnuts are well-toasted, wrap them in a newspaper cone. After a few minutes, you can peel them without burning your fingers and enjoy them like Grandma Sita. Looking for healthy plant-based snacking? Count on roasted chestnuts!
Chestnuts are rich in complex carbohydrates, fibre, vegetable proteins, and mineral salts. Remain a good source of antioxidants, even after cooking. Adding chestnuts to your plant-based meals not only provides a wide range of health benefits but also adds flavours and textures.
Chestnuts are shiny brown nuts often used to make cakes, stuffings, purées, soups or stews as well as roast and eat them whole. Bitter when raw, roasted chestnuts have a delicate and slightly sweet flavour with a soft texture similar to sweet potato.
Grandma Sita’s tips:
Foraging chestnuts is as easy as picking them up off the ground. Edible chestnuts (genus Castanea) always have a tassel or point on the nut and are enclosed in sharp, spine-covered burs. Ripe nuts fall from their burrs then you can collect them from below the tree.Chestnuts are highly perishable and must be kept in a sealed glass container in the fridge. When kept at room temperature, they’ll start to go bad and become mouldy in the shell after a few days. Freezing chestnuts allows you to enjoy them nearly all year long avoiding waste. Chestnuts can be frozen with or without their shell, raw or cooked.
Be careful! The toxic, inedible horse chestnuts are rounded smooth and have a fleshy, bumpy husk with a wart-covered appearance. If eaten, they can cause digestive problems such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and throat irritation.
Magosto, Castanyada, Magosta, or Magusto are traditional festivals held in autumn around the Iberian Peninsula dedicated to roasted chestnuts, the tradition varies throughout its geography.
Anyway, you can buy roasted chestnuts almost everywhere, as they are a popular autumn and winter street food in East Asia, Europe, and New York City. The heat caramelizes the sugars inside the nut, leading to a scent that’s rich, warm, and comforting. The smell of roasted chestnuts is all around the world!
Eating local and seasonal fruits and vegetables helps to reduce food waste, saves resources, improves food quality and healthy habits, and boosts the local economy.
