Tahini Chickpea Stir Fry

I know I haven't posted a new recipe in a while, but I finally have something worth posting about. I did something the other day that I used to do almost every time I cooked. I just 'went with it.' I have been following a lot of recipes lately and not really just going with my instincts and cooking with what I happen to have on hand. I want to get back into doing this and while I had one failure initially, I hit a winner with this chickpea dish. I worked with the winning combination of chickpeas, tahini and lemon in my favourite dip, hummus and these ingredients delivered.

You may also notice the use of coconut oil instead of the usual olive oil. I have been doing this as of late for two reasons. I won't go into too much detail because I am thinking of writing a post all about it, but the reasons are 1) I don't trust the quality of EVOO and 2) high heat isn't really that good for EVOO and coconut is such a stable oil, which does not make the dish taste at all coconuty. Win-win situation.

Tahini and Chickpea Stir Fry
Serves 2-3

1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 large head of kale, chopped
~1 cup cooked chickpeas
1.5 tbsp tahini
1.5 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast
avocado

1. Heat coconut oil in a pan on medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add bell pepper and mushrooms and sauté for about 5 minutes.
3. Add kale and chickpeas and heat until kale is beginning to wilt and vegetables are cooked.
4. In the meantime whisk together tahini, lemon juice and nutritional yeast. The nutritional yeast thickens up the sauce so do not add if you like the thinner consistency. The sauce also thickens in the pan.
5. Add the sauce to the pan and stir to completely mix and heat through.
6. Serve topped with chopped avocado.

I knew I liked this dish upon initial taste, but I knew it was blog worthy when my Mom enjoyed it. She liked the lemon and tahini combination with alongside the chickpeas tastes a little hummus like. You can always adjust the tahini and lemon ratio to suit your taste, and of course change up the veggies. But whatever you do, don't leave out the chickpeas.