Chestnuts Are Your Friends

I tried persimmons and fennel recently for the first time. I decided to keep the trend of trying new things and trying my best to eat seasonally at the same time. Enter the chestnut! Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire and all that jazz aside, I had no idea what you'd even do with one, much less what they looked like. Lucky for me, the market had some fresh chestnuts. There were also some canned ones, but they had some sugar added and I'm not so into that nonsense.

I made the Caramelized Onion-Butternut Squash Roast with Chestnuts from Veganomicon first. I had some chestnuts leftover after that so I put some into stuffing for Christmas dinner. One thing I found interesting about them is that they get a little hardish after you roast them. But - never fear! Put them in something (like stuffing or this casserole) and they get soft. Same goes for the ones I kept on the counter in a container. Weird, but useful.

This casserole from Veganomicon totally rocks. Anyone who has passed it by or just disregarded it needs to go right on back and make it. I ended up eating as a main course, but it would be awesome as a side-dish as well. The flavors blended together nicely creating a nice blend of awesome in your mouth.