Chestnut spelt salad
When we were kids autumn was always an exciting time. We would go on foraging trips to find acorns, chestnuts and beech nuts. We would use the acorns and chestnuts to make little stick animals where we would use toothpicks to stick into the nuts to create arms and legs or whatever other weird creation we would come up with. The beech nuts we would eat. I haven’t eaten one in forever!!
The chestnuts we would find were mostly the kind you couldn’t eat. What we would call the wild chestnuts and then we had the ‘sweet chestnuts’ or ‘tamme kastanje’ which you could eat.
We would always just eat them raw, peeling them before we went home, checking for those little bugs and than popping in our eager mouths. Same with the beech nuts.
Acorns we would try and find as much as we could also when I was visiting my friend. Her parents had a big farm and the pigs loved to get acorns, so we found those by the bucket as the street opposite their farm was lined with big oaks.
We never did anything else with chestnuts or beech nuts. I’m not sure you can cook with beech nuts but I’m pretty sure by now that chestnuts are great to cook with. I brought home chestnut flour when I was in Italy and pretty soon you’ll find a fabulous cake recipe featuring that same flour, but other than that my experience with chestnuts was limited to our turkey stuffing adventure from last year. ( I can still feel my fingers from peeling all those hot chestnuts!)
Ofcourse it would have looked better had I gotten rid of that one limpy leaf in front!
It’s also not an ingredient that you find at every shop in town, so when I saw some last week I just had to get some. I used the chestnuts two ways; first in this delicious salad and later that same day for dinner in a mushroom risotto. In the salad it was delicious but I didn’t like it in the risotto. I think the sweetness didn’t really work to well with the mushrooms (I used chanterelle mushrooms ) and the texture of the chestnuts somehow was a little off putting.
This salad however is a different story. I quickly toasted the cooked and peeled chestnuts in a little bit of oil to give them a crunch and paired with the nutty flavor of the spelt that worked great. What is absolutely loved in this salad was the smoked raw ham. It was called ‘black forest smoked ham’ and had a pretty strong smoke flavor which was just delicious.
Chestnut spelt salad with apple and pomegranate
Yield: 1
Ingredients:
- 50 gr chestnuts, cooked and peeled
- 75 gr spelt
- 75 gr pomegranate seeds
- 3/4 apple (and eat the other 1/4..:)
- smoked raw ham (I used black forest ham)
- Salad leaves of your choice, about a handful
- chives
For the dressing;
- 2,5 tbsp of red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp of hazelnut oil
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- salt
- pepper
Directions:
Chop or crumble the chestnuts and quickly bake them in a frying pan with olive oil until golden. Leave to drain on kitchen paper. Cook your spelt according to package instructions, drain and leave to cool.
Peel and chop your apple into cubes. I had a small apple and used about 3/4 of the apple.
Tear your ham in strips. Cut the chives into small bits.
Make the dressing by combining the dressing ingredients and stir until combined. Taste and add salt and peper where needed.
Assemble the salad by putting all ingredients in a bowl and stirring them through. Put some dressing through the salad and serve extra on the side
Recipe by Simone van den Berg
Appetizer
Asian
Bread
Breakfast
Desserts & other sweets
Healthy
A goregous salad! Beautiful, colorful and surely extremely tasty. What a splendidly seasonal combination.
Cheers,
Rosa
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 23rd, 2012 at 08:42
Thanks Rosa!
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Beautiful fall salad!
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 23rd, 2012 at 08:42
Thanks Laura!
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I simply cannot believe it! Collecting chestnuts in Tallinn, Estonia was surely my very favourite childhood ‘occupation’ in autumn: I kept them to play with – each was slightly different and shiny: I had families and armies . . you get the idea! NOW: our name for them is ‘tamme [oak] kastanid’ and yours is just one letter different – is that still in Dutch? Or do you have Estonian or possibly Finnish roots? Holland is half of Europe away!!!!! Oh, that said: beautiful salad in looks and I am sure in taste!! Will most certainly file and try our autumn here!!
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 23rd, 2012 at 08:42
O Hahaha… That is so funny. Yes the words tamme kastanje is very Dutch but what I have noticed before is that some Finnish words sounds very similar to Dutch ones. (Don’t know about Estonian ones) I used to work with a Finnish colleague and when she was on the phone with her family I would catch certain words that sounded a bit familiar. It’s one of those things where, if you listen consciously you don’t understand a single bit but if you stop actively listening it somehow makes sense. I don’t know how to explain it really. Lol. But it sounds we do have the same word for chestnuts….
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Beautiful salad. I’ve never cooked with chestnuts although I’ve eaten them several times. The best soup I ever had was a creamy chicken and chestnut soup and one day I’ll recreate it in my kitchen.
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 29th, 2012 at 08:54
O that sounds interesting to have chestnuts in the soup! Gotta remember that for a next time!
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What a lovely post to read & what a stunning Fall salad! I love it so much!
I have made your spelt salad with pomegranate & beetroot & my hubby & I loved it so much, dear Simone: so good too!
xxx
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 29th, 2012 at 09:01
O great to hear you liked it Sophie! I’ve already eaten it a couple of times myself now..
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I see recipes for chestnuts, but I honestly don’t know if I have enjoyed them. I for sure need to work with spelt more, your salad looks gorgeous! Hugs, Terra
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 29th, 2012 at 09:02
I think with chestnut it can be hit or miss as the taste and texture is so specific. But I do like it in this salad!
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We used to collect the bad chestnuts with the boys when they were little, just as something to do on autumn walks in the woods. Now I buy them ready cooked either sousvide, canned or in jars and I love them and love using them in both sweet and savory dishes. What i love about this salad is the mix of sweet and savory and adding the nutty chestnuts is perfect! I love this!
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 29th, 2012 at 09:03
See I wish we could get them ready cooked or canned or anything but the only thing I found once is the chestnut paste (sweet) Which is great but I’d love to be able to buy them ready and peeled!
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This looks yummy! I bought a bag of spelt for your beetroot salad and now I can try this as well. xo
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 29th, 2012 at 09:03
O yes, let me know how it went!
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Sweet chestnut in a salad!? We haven’t thought about that. Delicious idea
! Especially, because spelt is our favourite grain. We always use freshly ground spelt for baking. So we have to try out your salad. This autumn we have collected some sweet chestnuts but the remaining ones are probably too hard now for the salad. Hopefully, we can still find sweet chestnuts in the shops.
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 28th, 2012 at 09:18
It is quite good! I do think the baking of the chestnuts is essential for use in this salad as it changes the structure and makes it a little less sweet and perfect in combination with the other ingredients!
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I remember eating freshly roasted chestnuts in Tuscany last year, love their smell and taste. Perfect seasonal food! How was/is Italy?!
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Simone (junglefrog) — November 29th, 2012 at 09:04
Italy was fantastic Denise! Can’t wait to go back again (and again and again!)
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Oh I *love* black forest ham, and I love the nutty taste and chewy texture of spelt! Looks like my kind of salad – something marginally healthy to alternate with the heavy foods of the festive season.
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