Warm Autumn Chestnut Salad

Chestnuts are somewhat of a novelty for me. So sorry if this isn't so 'exotic' as some of the other things i've posted here.

Serves 2

Ingredients

~ 10 chestnuts

handful of wild rocket leaves

2 carrots

1 potato

3 cloves garlic

olive oil

salt & pepper

fresh rosemary

Method

1. Roast the chestnuts. You do this by first cutting a cross on the flatter end of each nut. This stops it exploding in the oven. Then place them in a preheated 200 degree C oven for about 15-20 mins. If you put a sheet of baking paper over the top of the roasting nuts this might make cleaning the oven if any explode an easier task. The nuts should be a golden colour and fairly easy to remove from the shells when they are done.

2. Roast veggies, garlic and rosemary in a baking pan with olive oil on 200 degrees C (thus you can cook both the chestnuts and veggies at the same time if you want.

3. On a bed of rocket crumble some roasted chestnuts and roast veggies. Squeeze the garlic cloves into the oil the pan and mix. Pour some of the garlicy olive oil over the salad.

Serve as a side to a main dish. In the spirit of Autumn this would be best with roast venison or duck...or roo, just make it gamey :)