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The other night I decided what to make for dinner around 5 o\u2019clock. For someone who likes having a plan, that was late. A bag of chickpeas was thawing the in the fridge, so I made half a batch of hummus and then had to do something with the rest.\u00a0 Flipping to the index in the Jerusalem cookbook there it was, Basmati and Wild Rice with Chickpeas, Currants and Herbs<\/a>. I went to the cupboard.\u00a0 No wild rice. Just as well, I wasn\u2019t gonna wait around for 45 minutes for it to cook anyway. Currants?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 Herbs? Well, cilantro. \u00a0Close enough. Time to riff.<\/p>\n Day 1, this is essentially a rice pilaf. \u00a0In a search for Forbidden rice, I’d picked up some\u00a0Bhutan red<\/a>\u00a0instead. It adds nice color, just a bit of nuttiness and it cooks up in about 20 minutes (just 1 cup rice w\/ 1 3\/4 c. water). The chickpeas, whether canned or thawed, you\u2019re just heating through in a spice mixture with a bit of oil and then tossing everything together. I won’t say this is a 30-minute meal, but it’s close. (You’ve seen this video, right?!)<\/p>\n