Chestnuts substitute

Best substitute

Vacuum-Packed or Jarred Cooked Chestnuts

Use the same amount by weight for peeled fresh chestnuts as the chestnuts you are replacing

Best for stuffing

Close match

Vacuum-packed or jarred cooked chestnuts are the first thing to look for, because they are the same ingredient already peeled and are stocked year-round where fresh ones are not. If you genuinely cannot get chestnuts at all, roasted diced sweet potato or parsnip is the best functional swap in stuffing or with sprouts, one for one, and cooked butter beans or cannellini beans are the closest for that soft mealy body. Understand what a chestnut is doing before you choose, because most people substitute wrongly here: it is not providing crunch or nut oil, it is providing soft starchy bulk and a gentle sweetness, which is why other nuts are a poor match and starchy vegetables are a good one. Water chestnuts are not related and are not a substitute, being crisp and watery with no starch or sweetness at all.

Other chestnuts substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Roasted Sweet Potato or Parsnip, Diced
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, diced to chestnut size and roasted until tender at the edges
The best functional match for how a chestnut actually behaves in a savoury dish: sweet, soft, starchy and slightly caramelised.
What changes
Dice into pieces roughly the size of a halved chestnut and roast at 200C until browning at the corners.
Best for
sausage and chestnut stuffing, brussels sprouts, roast vegetable dishes, braises, nut-free versions
Gets the texture and the sweetness genuinely right, and works better in stuffing than any nut does. What is obviously missing is the chestnut flavour, which is faintly woody and distinctive, and parsnip in particular brings its own aniseed-ish note. Sweet potato is sweeter and softer, parsnip is closer in colour and earthiness, so parsnip is the better choice if you want it to pass unnoticed. Both also collapse more readily than chestnuts, so roast them slightly under.
3Cooked Butter Beans or Cannellini Beans
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, drained, rinsed and patted dry
Surprisingly good, and the closest thing to a chestnut's mealy, dense, faintly sweet interior.
What changes
Drain and dry them well, then brown them briefly in butter or the pan fat before folding them in.
Best for
stuffing, chestnut and mushroom filling, braises, soups and purees, nut-free versions
The mouthfeel is remarkably similar, soft and starchy with a bit of body, which is why this works better than instinct suggests. Beans are less sweet and more savoury though, so add a teaspoon of sugar or a spoonful of honey per cup to bring them into range, and they are slightly more inclined to break up when stirred. Butter beans are larger and closer in size, so they are the better of the two.
4Chestnut Puree or Chestnut Flour
Different texture
Use ½ cup puree, or 3 tbsp chestnut flour, for every 1 cup whole chestnuts, for flavour rather than texture
The move when the chestnut flavour is what matters and the shape does not.
What changes
Available in tins and packets in delicatessens and larger supermarkets, and it keeps indefinitely in the cupboard.
Best for
chestnut soup, Mont Blanc and chestnut desserts, stuffing where texture comes from elsewhere, chestnut cakes and pastries
This is the honest answer for anything where chestnut is the headline flavour, because nothing else tastes like it. What you sacrifice is the whole soft nugget, so a stuffing made with puree tastes right and reads as smooth and uniform rather than studded. Check whether the tin is sweetened, since sweetened puree marketed for desserts will make a savoury dish cloying, and unsweetened puree in a Mont Blanc will taste flat.
5Toasted Hazelnuts or Macadamias
Taste and texture differ
¾ the volume of chestnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
The best of the actual nuts, because both are relatively soft and mild.
What changes
Toast at 180C, rub hazelnut skins off in a tea towel, and chop coarsely rather than finely.
Best for
brussels sprouts with nuts, stuffing where crunch is welcome, salads, roast vegetable dishes
Worth being clear that this changes the dish rather than replacing the ingredient. Chestnuts are soft, starchy and low in fat, and these are firm, crunchy and very oily, so sprouts with hazelnuts is a good dish but it is a different one from sprouts with chestnuts. Use a little less because the nuts are richer and more assertive, and add them at the end so they stay crisp. Macadamias are the milder and softer of the two and therefore slightly closer.
6Cooked Chickpeas, Lightly Crushed
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, drained, dried and browned in fat
The cheapest option and almost certainly already in the cupboard.
What changes
Drain, dry thoroughly, crush each one lightly with the flat of a knife, then brown in butter or oil until the edges catch.
Best for
stuffing, braises and stews, nut-free and budget versions, vegetarian roasts
Mealy, mild and starchy in a way that genuinely echoes a chestnut, particularly once browned. Chickpeas are more savoury and firmer with a slightly grainy finish, and they carry an unmistakable pulse flavour that a chestnut does not, so this works best in a heavily seasoned stuffing with sausage, sage and onion where the surrounding flavours carry the dish. Browning them properly is what makes the difference between this working and tasting like tinned chickpeas in your stuffing.

What is Chestnuts?

Chestnuts is Chestnuts, also sold as marrons or sweet chestnuts, are the starchy low-fat nuts of the sweet chestnut tree, and unlike every other nut they behave in cooking like a mealy sweet vegetable rather than an oily crunchy one.

Cooking tips

Cut a deep cross through the shell of each fresh chestnut before roasting, right through to the flesh. Chestnuts contain enough moisture that they build steam pressure and burst loudly in the oven, throwing hot fragments, and the cross gives the steam somewhere to go as well as making them far easier to peel.
Peel them while they are genuinely hot, working with a cloth in your hand and a few at a time, leaving the rest in the warm oven. The thin brown pellicle under the shell sets like glue as the nut cools and becomes almost impossible to remove, which is why a batch that started easy turns into a fight halfway through.
Buy about a third more fresh chestnuts than the recipe's peeled weight. Between the shells, the pellicle and the inevitable few that turn out mouldy or hollow inside, you lose a substantial proportion, so a recipe calling for 400g of peeled chestnuts wants roughly 600g in the bag.
Do not confuse three different things sold with chestnut in the name. Sweet chestnuts are the edible nut this page is about. Water chestnuts are an unrelated aquatic vegetable, crisp and watery, used in Chinese cooking, and no substitute at all. Horse chestnuts, the conkers that fall from ornamental trees in parks, are toxic and must never be eaten. If you are foraging rather than shopping, be certain which tree you are under.
Chestnuts are starchy rather than oily, so they can be simmered, braised and pureed in ways no other nut can, and they also go mouldy rather than rancid. Store fresh ones in the fridge in a paper bag and use them within a couple of weeks, and freeze cooked peeled ones, which they take extremely well.

Frequently asked questions

Are water chestnuts a substitute for chestnuts?

No, and this is the most common mix-up on the subject. Water chestnuts are the corm of an aquatic sedge, mostly water and crisp fibre, with a mild sweetness and a crunch that survives cooking. Sweet chestnuts are a genuine tree nut, dense with starch, soft and mealy when cooked, and much sweeter. Swapping one for the other in a stuffing or with brussels sprouts gives you unpleasant watery crunch where you wanted soft starchy sweetness. They share only a name.

What can I use instead of chestnuts in stuffing?

Roasted diced parsnip or sweet potato is the best answer, or browned butter beans if you want something closer to that soft mealy interior. All three supply what the chestnut was actually there for, which is sweet starchy bulk to break up the bread and sausage, and none of them tastes of chestnut. If the chestnut flavour matters to you, a couple of tablespoons of unsweetened chestnut puree stirred through the mixture alongside one of those gets you both.

Can I just leave the chestnuts out?

Yes, in most savoury dishes, with no other adjustment. Stuffing without chestnuts is simply sausage and sage stuffing, and brussels sprouts without them are still very good sprouts, especially with bacon or lemon. What you lose is a sweet soft counterpoint to the salt and the bitterness, so consider adding something else in that role, such as a handful of raisins, diced apple or roasted squash. In a chestnut soup or a Mont Blanc, the chestnut is the dish and leaving it out is not an option.

Are jarred and vacuum-packed chestnuts as good as fresh ones?

For cooking, close enough that most people should just buy them. The flavour is a little milder and the texture slightly softer and wetter than freshly roasted, and they miss the smoky note real roasting gives, but in a stuffing, soup, braise or a pan of sprouts those differences vanish. Warming them in butter for a couple of minutes improves them noticeably. Fresh roasted chestnuts are worth the effort when you are eating them on their own, which is really what fresh ones are for.

Can I use another nut instead, since chestnuts are nuts?

You can, but expect a different dish rather than a substitution, because chestnuts behave nothing like other nuts. Almost every other nut is high in fat, low in starch, and crunchy, whereas a chestnut is low in fat, high in starch and soft. Toasted hazelnuts or macadamias with brussels sprouts make a lovely plate of food that is not chestnut sprouts. If you want the chestnut role filled properly, look at starchy vegetables and beans rather than at the nut aisle.

Related substitutes

More nuts & seeds substitutes

Chestnuts substitute

Other chestnuts substitutes

2Roasted Sweet Potato or Parsnip, Diced

3Cooked Butter Beans or Cannellini Beans

4Chestnut Puree or Chestnut Flour

5Toasted Hazelnuts or Macadamias

6Cooked Chickpeas, Lightly Crushed