I went chestnut-foraging yesterday too! I used to be almost vegan and we are often meat-free now, but at Christmas I used to make a chestnut, mushroom and red wine casserole for my dinner. It was good because if you were going to have Christmas dins at a rellie's or friend's house you could just take it with you and it had its own gravy.
Basically it was onions, garlic, celery, mushrooms fried up... I used to flambe it with brandy... add a pint of red wine, some stock, a load of chestnuts... cook till done... thicken with cornflour and a bit of soy sauce to darken it... careful with the saltiness if the stock is salty... Yum! The turkey-eaters used to nick it.
I also used to use chestnut puree to make a hot sweet souffle - I know you don't eat dairy but if you eat eggs I'm sure you could rustle up a version. It included quite a bit of grated dark chocolate which was particularly nice.