Easy.. Chestnut Hotpot in 30 minutes

I love this time of year for foraging and cooking seasonally.  On my wanderings lately I've garnered quite a hoard from the hedgerows.  The other day, after discovering a tree of treasure whilst I was out and about, I walked home rattling as a fifty or so ripe and ready walnuts jostled in my cotton shoulder bag.  After weeks of kicking through spiky chestnut casings and finding them disappointingly small and unripe, yesterday I struck gold.  I was bobbing up and down, gathering from one spot to another among the damp leaves and the long grass.  They were ready.  Gloriously dark, plump and shiny.  Unfortunately, I had taken so long to prize them out of their housing and selecting the ones the squirrels had kindly clawed open, I had little time to saute, sweat, pre-boil or marinated according to a recipe I was going to follow (from a book I have been reviewing by Tony Weston & Yvonne Bishop) , to be ready before my ZUMBA class.   So I simplified and diversified.  I cut down the list of ingredients from over 20 (!) to  just 11 and the prep from 'detailed' to ridiculously carefree.

I now introduce to you....foraged and EASY.....

Hearty Vegan Chestnut Hot Pot

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

20 chestnuts (peeled)
1 medium onion
4 tbs nutritional yeast
2 tbs tamari (gluten free soy sauce)
1 tbs 100% cocoa powder
2 tbs arrowroot powder
1 tbs red wine vinegar
2 tsp mixed herbs
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

Celeriac

Method

1. peel and slice the celeriac making enough slices to cover your oven dish.  Retain and dice 1/2 cup to put in the hotpot. Steam the slices for 20 mins.
2. in a saucepan put diced onions, and all remaining ingredients with the exception of the arrowroot, and add enough water to cover the ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. mix the arrowroot with a little water to make a paste, spoon in some of the cooking liquid and mix.  Slowly, whilst stirring the stew, add the arrowroot mixture to thicken.
4. transfer to a baking dish.  You can either serve this as is or you can crumble over some vegan cheese and pop under a medium grill for 5-6 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and turning the colour of autumn gold (time was ticking and I had some moves to throw in my dance class, so I didn't do this.  But next time...)