Babs goes nuts!

11.6.2025

Here’s some we did yesterday:

First preheat your oven to 200°C if it’s a fan oven (higher if not), or 400°F or gas mark 6.

Then rinse the chestnuts, trim off the stem, and cut a cross in the outer skin. If you don’t slit the skin they will explode in the oven.

Get a grown-up to help you with this because it’s quite fiddly and needs a sharp knife. We don’t want any fingers getting sliced!

When you’ve done that you can put your nuts on a baking tray or dish …

We only collected a few yesterday because we’d never tried them before and didn’t want to waste too many if we didn’t like them. Of course you may deduce now that we did like them!

Bung them in the oven and roast them until the skin peels open which should take around half an hour.

While they are warm, peel off the outer brown skin and the inner paler skin …

And you’ll be left with a beautiful, soft, creamy-coloured nut which is absolutely delicious:

Yum!

Happy foraging

Violet’s Vegan Comics

51 responses to “Babs goes nuts!”

tomalice2013

October 9, 2014

love it- thank you Violet ( and Babs of course) for making the educational things so much fun!x

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1. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
  
  October 9, 2014
  
  Thank you so much, so glad you liked it – Babs will be delighted 😉
  
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The Vegan Green

October 9, 2014

Love chestnuts, they are great mixed in with brussel sprouts!

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1. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
  
  October 9, 2014
  
  Yuck! I hate brussel sprouts! 😀
  
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  1. The Vegan Green
    
    October 9, 2014
    
    In that case, forget that idea!!! Maybe with some greens or kale and onions instead
    
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    1. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
      
      October 9, 2014
      
      Ok, now you’re talkin’! 😉
      
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Sex, Spirit, Soul Mates and Chocolate….Ivonne’s Journey

October 8, 2014

I love chestnuts. Good to know about slitting the skin. I would have a July 4th fireworks in my oven.

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1. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
  
  October 9, 2014
  
  😀
  
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jpeggytaylor

October 8, 2014

MMMMMM …. tasty chestnuts 😀 We buy them at Christmas to roast but you are so lucky to be able to forage full size sweet chestnuts 🙂 We collected some of the small ones we find in the woods near us but sadly they didn’t really work out for cooking. Sweet chestnut cases are very spiky aren’t they. I love the colours of the sweet chestnut leaves in Autumn too.

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1. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
  
  October 9, 2014
  
  We are lucky. I’d never seen them in any of the places we’d lived before, but there’s loads round here 🙂
  
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Sarah

October 8, 2014

Yay, Babs is back! My dad made us roast chestnuts once in the fireplace. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. 🙂 I haven’t noticed any sweet chestnut trees round here, I must keep my eyes peeled.

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1. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
  
  October 9, 2014
  
  I haven’t seen them in places we’ve lived before either but there’s loads here in East Sussex. Where are you?
  
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  1. Sarah
    
    October 9, 2014
    
    The rural West of Ireland surrounded by farmland. Lots of sycamore, hawthorn, blackthorn and elder. I keep meaning to do something with the elder but haven’t got round to it yet.
    
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    1. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
      
      October 10, 2014
      
      Oh yes, we were thinking the same thing and never got round to it. I did make some elderberry jam years ago but it came out really solid and proved very difficult to get a knife into! If I do it again it’ll definitely have to be mixed with another fruit 🙂
      
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    2. Sarah
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      I’ve had that problem with blackberries (or it could have been blackcurrants, I forget). I put apples in for extra pectin but there was too much and it set solid. 🙂 The next year I over-compensated and ended up with sauce. I should really follow a recipe I think. 🙂
      I’d love to have a go at elderflower cordial. I like the shop-bought stuff so homemade should be yummy.
      
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    3. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      Oh, yes, home made is always better. I don’t think I’ve tried elderflower cordial – let me know how you get on 🙂
      
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    4. Sarah
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      I will. 🙂
      It’s especially nice carbonated. They sell it as Elderflower Champagne. Really yummy and refreshing. It has a very distinctive taste.
      
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    5. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      Interesting. How will you carbonate it?
      
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    6. Sarah
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      I guess I will have to buy some soda water to dilute the cordial with. But I’ll wait to see if the cordial is any good first. It might be yummy enough without bubbles. 🙂
      
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    7. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      Oh yes, try it first – soda water is yuck!!!! I love the idea of making a drink out of flowers 🙂
      
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    8. Sarah
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      My friend makes a drink out of meadowsweet flowers which is quite nice. I want to try making that too.
      
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    9. Violet’s Veg*n e-comics
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      I’m loving this idea! Keep me posted 🙂
      
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    10. Sarah
      
      October 11, 2014
      
      Will do!
      
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