Chestnuts are an important source of precious minerals and contain fibres that are useful for intestinal activity. Fresh chestnuts must always be cooked before use and are never eaten raw, owing to their tannic acid content. You need to remove the chestnuts from their skins by either boiling or roasting them.

• The chestnuts can be roasted, boiled, can be dried, can be reduced to flour, and stored in spirit or honey after being cooked.
• Just 10 roasted chestnuts include 17% of the fibre you need for the day — a major plus considering most of us don't get nearly enough.
• Chestnuts are excellent with chocolate, boiled with cream, perfumed with fennel seeds, with honey, and also with stewed red cabbage.