Spicy Chickpeas & Rice

Prep time: 30 min.

This "recipe" is the result of not having anything to eat for lunch and rummaging around for something to keep us from going to the grocery store hungry. Here's what I found:

• half a jar of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
• a tin full of spices
• basmati rice

I started off thinking "spicy" and ended up thinking "Indian." The result, as you might imagine, was both spicy and Indian. I used a heaping teaspoon of chili powder, which was definitely more than necessary. Our mouths were on fire throughout the meal. But it turned out well enough, so I'll try to give you the quantities I used so you can try something similar the next time you are out of food.

1 c. basmati rice

1½ c. chickpeas

½ t. chili powder

1 t. tumeric

1 t. cumin

1 t. curry powder

¾ c. plain yogurt

1 c. chicken broth

a little salt

Follow the instructions on the package for cooking your rice. (Or don't, since our package instructions called for a 3:1 water:rice ratio and we've found 2:1 to work better.) Put your chickpeas in a saucepan and salt the heck out of them until they taste like French fries. Add chicken broth. Stir in the other spices and yogurt.

I think it's best served in a bowl with the rice on the bottom and the other stuff on top. Note: go easy on the chili powder and taste it before you add too much. Sarah and I literally each drank an entire liter of water ourselves. It was really spicy.

One final note. I'm just kind of making up these quantities (and some of the ingredients). I don't know exactly how much of any of this stuff I actually used, since I didn't have a measuring spoon. Also, I think the yogurt I used was actually German quark and it might have been sweetened (not plain). And I'm sure this would be just fine with regular rice.

The moral of this recipe is: "There's probably something to eat somewhere in your house."