Although this is my family’s Christmas stuffing recipe, with the advent of vacuum-packed chestnuts, I actually make it throughout the winter to serve with roasted root vegetables for meat-free Mondays.
Ingredients:
- 100ml red wine
- 150g raisins
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Small onion, chopped
- Sprig of thyme
- About 400g vacuum-packed chestnuts, chopped
- Handful of chopped parsley
- Lemon zest, optional
Method:
1. Soak the raisins in the red wine, ideally overnight but, in practice, I warm the raisins and red wine in a saucepan and leave the to soak while I chop the rest of the ingredients. You can decide how chunky you want the stuffing to be – and chop the ingredients accordingly.
2. Cook the onion and thyme in the olive oil on a low heat until it is soft but not coloured.
3. Add the chestnuts so they are coated in oil.
4. Add the red wine from the raisins and it reduce.
5. Meanwhile chop the raisins if you want a very fine stuffing. I like everything to be the same size so I often chop the onion and chestnuts so they are about the same size as the raisins and therefore don’t need to chop the raisins at this stage.
6. Add the raisins to the saucepan and let everything warm through. Stir in some parsley.
7. If you are serving this as a dish, add a handful of freshly chopped parsley and lemon zest for colour.
**Always check the ingredients of any food you’re cooking with to make sure it doesn’t contain something you or your child should avoid.
