Chili Roasted Snacking Chestnuts

Chestnuts are so versatile- they taste amazing in sweet and savory dishes, and find their place mixed into desserts and main meals. But today we’re giving you a recipe that’s all chestnut- chili roasted snacking chestnuts. They’re exactly what the sound like- chestnuts roasted with chili (and a little garlic, sugar, and white pepper), perfect for snacking. The insides are soft and creamy, almost like a cooked potato, the outsides are golden and crispy. This recipe uses frozen, pre-shelled chestnuts to make snacking as simple as possible- and make sure you roast the entire bag of chestnuts, because once you start munching you’ll be wanting them.

Skip the Post, Jump to the Recipe!

Cooking with Chestnuts

I love the flavor and texture of chestnuts so much. They’ve become my “flavor of the season” this winter, and I’m always trying to track some down to add to my meals. They’re sweet and rich, substantial, nutty, creamy and starchy. They can be used in both sweet and savory recipes, and while I always want to make a sweet chestnut dish I always end up making them savory instead. It’s almost like chestnuts are too good in savory applications to use in dessert. I think it might take me finding pre-made sweetened chestnut puree to get beyond my need for chestnuts to be savory, but at least in the United States, that’s not too common.

I have decided, however, at least for the year, to stop buying fresh chestnuts. My love for eating chestnuts is almost surpassed by my dislike of shelling them. You have to shell them when hot, and they always end up burning my fingertips. Add to that the sharp edges of the shells painfully poking my phalanges and even with the pain, chestnuts have a stubborn papery skin underneath the shells that can be impossible to remove. And even if you somehow manage to free the chestnuts from it’s shell and skin with your fingers relatively intact, there’s a decent chance some of your nuts might be rotten, especially if you’ve been buying them a little out of season (as I have- chestnut season is in the Fall).

Unless you are getting really fresh, reliable chestnuts, I think frozen is the way to go. They won’t burn you, they won’t poke you, the come pre-shelled, and I have yet to find a rotten nut in the bunch. The only place I’ve found frozen chestnuts was at my local Asian grocery store, or at my also fairly local online Asian grocery store- you can check that out here.

Chestnuts should always be cooked, not eaten raw. They are delicious pureed into soups, used as a base for vegan cheeses, roasted, crumbled into salads or grain bowls, stir-fried, work as a potato alternative, add a festive note to stuffings and holiday mains, and make an excellent sweet puree, if you can get yourself to stray from the savory.

Looking for Chestnut Recipes? Try one of these!

• Fermented Spreadable Sweet Chestnut Cheese
• Eggplant, Chestnut, and Mushroom Vegan Holiday Loaf
• Watercress and Vegan Chestnut Soup

Looking for Unique Vegan Snacks? Try one of these!

• Garlicky Lacto-Fermented Snap Peas Snack
• Flavor-Bomb Vegan Snacking Hominy Recipe
• Buttery Vegan Cheese Cracker Recipe
• Miso-Glazed Fresh Garbanzo Beans
• Salt and Vinegar Fried Lotus Root
• Crunchy Sesame Crusted Delicata Squash
• Garlic Mustard and Tofu Patties
• Sunflower Seed Loaded Jerusalem Artichoke Chips
• Bloomin’ Maitake (Vegan Hen of the Woods Recipe)
• Homemade Bitter Melon Chips
• Vegan Lime and Coconut Spicy Cashews

How to Make Roasted Snacking Chestnuts

Starting with frozen, pre-peeled chestnuts is key for making this recipe quick, easy, and low-fuss. You can literally take the chestnuts out of the freezer, throw them in the oven in a baking dish, and you’ve made snacking magic. To add a little more to the sweet, nutty chestnuts, we’ve added chili flakes for a kick, garlic, a little sugar, and salt and white pepper. The combination of those ingredients hits so many notes- sweet, umami, salty, funky, nutty, buttery, and hot. The perfect snack food. All you need to do is toss the ingredients together and roast. The amount of time you roast for makes a difference- for a soft, buttery texture roast for less time. A longer roast will make the outside of the nuts crispy, with parts getting extra hard, almost like Cornnuts. Extra crispy is probably not the best choice if you have sensitive or tender teeth. I like the extra crispy version myself, but the choice is yours.

I like to top my chestnuts with fresh scallions, for some added oniony flavor and freshness, but that’s very much optional. They’re perfect for snacking as-is.

Chili Roasted Snacking Chestnuts

Like our Work? Great vegan recipes cost money to make! Help us buy cashews, kale, tofu, and other important things.

Like these Snacking Chestnuts? Pin it!