Candied Lion’s Mane Chestnuts and Sprouts

Chef – Lauren Lovatt

Ingredients:

100 g chestnuts, cooked and peeled
200 g kalette, sliced in half
100 g peacock kale
10 g maple
10 g olive oil
5 g tamari
10 g lion’s mane

Method:

First, place your peeled chestnuts in a bowl. Drizzle them with olive oil, maple and tamari and break them up just a little with a fork. Leave to marinade while you prepare the next steps.

First, set up a steamer with boiling water and steam the kalette for two minutes until lightly cooked, then run under cold water to stop the cooking process for a moment. Warm a frying pan on medium heat and add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add your chestnuts and caramelize moving around the pan until golden. Place back in the bowl and toss over the lion’s mane. It is important this ingredient remains raw, but lightly coats the chestnuts.

Keeping the pan on the heat, toss in the kalettes. The joy of this is some of the leaves fall off and becoming extra crispy. Turn the heat up and sizzle the kalettes a little until just crispy around the edges. Once cooked through and lightly crispy, turn off the heat and grind some black pepper over the kalettes. Put the kalettes into the bowl with the sprouts and lightly toss and serve as a plant-powered side dish for any festive meal.