Although rarer than common commercial shrooms, chestnut mushrooms have significant benefits in the kitchen. Offering a distinct texture and taste, chestnut mushroom recipes offer you the chance to add new flavors to traditional or contemporary meals.
Whether you’re a vegan cook or looking to add some variety to your standard kitchen components, fungi are a fantastic group of ingredients, especially chestnut shrooms.
The taste and rarity of chestnut mushrooms
According to professional growers Mycoterra Farms, genuine chestnuts can be hard to find in stores. Despite its brown studded top, this mushroom is often mistaken for cremini mushrooms or baby bellas (white button mushrooms).
That said, your best bet is to look at the local farmers’ market, where you can talk directly to cultivators to ensure you’re getting what you want.
Chestnuts do grow as a foragable species of wild mushrooms. However, the U.S. isn’t really its scene. Instead, these shrooms’ are known to hang out under beach trees in Northern European and the British Isle, as well as in Japan (per Fungi Academy).
If you’re in these regions or see chestnut mushrooms for sale at your local market, grab them! Grab the whole bunch! These slightly sweet, nutty mushrooms have a deep, umami character comparable to porcini shrooms.
Texturally, chestnuts are between the deep chewiness of shiitake mushrooms and the meaty heft of portobello mushrooms.
Can you eat them raw?
Technically yes, but this is one mushroom you’ll want to cook. Overall, chestnut mushrooms have a fairly firm consistency; a crispy snap contrasts the softer feel you’d like when snacking on a raw mushroom.
The best way to cook chestnut mushrooms
Unlike cremini or button mushrooms, chestnut shrooms can maintain a firm texture from cap to stem. This makes them perfect mushrooms for cooking various recipes and techniques, from a frying pan sauté to a stir fry.
However, you can cook chestnuts down into a one-pot creamy mushroom soup with enough prep time. Overall, these shrooms are versatile in texture and have a unique richness. Here are the best chestnut mushroom recipes sorted from beginner to expert.
Chestnut Mushrooms on Toast with Clove Garlic and Fresh Parsley
Image via The Telegraph
This recipe from the Telegraph is about as easy as it comes. Chestnuts pack your breakfast with B vitamins and essential amino acids. Medium-high heat gets the shrooms cooked quickly and preps your pan for the second half. Add an egg, fried or poached, to supplement calcium, potassium, and other nutrients.
Pickled Chestnut Mushrooms
Image via Great British Chefs
Quick pickled mushrooms go great as a side dish, garnish on a charcuterie board, or as part of your main course. In order to avoid a hot splash that could burn you, make sure to give your boiling water a second to cool before pouring it.
Chestnut Mushroom Bourguignon
Image via The Veg Space
Admittedly, this recipe doesn’t differentiate between actual chestnut mushrooms and creminis. Yet, with the total time of this recipe clocking in at 15 minutes, it’s a great gluten-free dinner that comes together quickly.
Chestnut Mushroom Omelette
Image via Steamy Kitchen
We might not recommend this for any old mushrooms, but if you can swap chicken eggs with duck eggs, we highly advise it. The woodsy flavor of chestnut mushrooms pairs well with the minerality of a less traditional flavor.
Balsamic Chestnut Mushroom Spaghetti
Image via Oh My Dish
Tangy sweet balsamic vinegar? Check. Aromatic chives? Yep, those too. A touch of black pepper and chef’s kiss.
The Perfect Pasta ai Funghi
Image via The Guardian
Fresh thyme sprigs, shallot? Sign us up. This recipe arrives as an amalgam of techniques from professional chefs in America’s Test Kitchen to the forebearer of Italian cuisine in the U.S., Marcella Hazan.
Chestnut Mushroom & Brown Rice Caprese Bake
Image via Waitrose
This new recipe will require conversion from the metric system as it hails from across the Atlantic. Still, this dish earns its four-star rating, with fresh greens cutting the denseness of the carbohydrates and meaty chestnuts giving a firm bite.
Squash and Mushroom Pearl Barely Risotto with Truffle Oil and Toasted Hazelnuts (Vegan)
Image via Rebel Recipes
While this recipe opts for the bouncy texture of pearl barley, arborio rice is a standard for risotto in traditional recipes. If you make the switch, remember that rice will take longer to cook than pearled barley.
Chestnut Mushroom and Red Wine Soup
Image via Delicious Magazine
Boasting 353 kcals, this mushroom and wine soup is brawny rather than boozy. To eliminate the taste of alcohol, give your wine adequate time to reduce, then purée with an immersion blender.
White Pizza with Asparagus, Chestnut Mushrooms, and Thyme
Image via Ooni
Although this recipe is from Ooni, you don’t need a special oven to make a pizza like this. Adding roasted chestnuts to the top of any pie will bring deep umami to your average slice.
Chestnut Mushrooms Sticky Rice Bowl
Image via The Feed Feed
This recipe calls for a few particular ingredients, including two different soy sauces and Chinese cooking wine. Sherry can substitute for the latter, and hoisin, Worchestire, or Oyster sauce can undoubtedly be used in place of the dark soy.
Chestnut Mushroom and Artichoke Galette
Image via Field & Forest Products
Calling experienced bakers: This recipe will be a journey, but with artichokes being high in vitamin C, this combination is nutritious, delicious, and worth the effort. Don’t forget the egg wash!
Chestnut Mushroom Wellington
Image via Hello Magazine
Sure, you could have classic stuffed mushrooms for the holidays, but your vegetarian diners deserve more than that. Chef Matt Tebbut’s recipe calls for mushroom stock, but relying on store-bought veggie stock or bouillon cubes is an easy way to simplify a part of the puzzle.
Cooked in a simple sauté or baked into puff pastry, chestnut mushrooms are a satisfying ingredient with nuanced flavor. However you cook them, have fun with the process!
