I’m not going to lie. The only negative things we heard about Costa Rica before our visit to the country were about a subject close to our hearts: the food. But one rustic dish was very popular – gallo pinto. It’s a fine dish when made correctly, so here’s our authentic gallo pinto recipe.
One Mexican chef we met in Mexico City who’d lived in Costa Rica for a long time said we’d love everything about Costa Rica. “What about the food?” I asked. “Oh, the food…” she grimaced. “It’s, umm, basic.”
“It’s bland!” other Mexican friends cried in horror. “And there are fried plantains with everything!”
That’s mostly true. The food is relatively simple compared to the complex cuisines of Mexico or, say, Thailand and other countries which can get hot and humid just like Costa Rica. Fried plantains are served with everything it seems. But the food is not all bland.
Frankly, I was unsure whether to do anything on food at all in Costa Rica. Surely we could write enough about monkeys, birds, surfing, and swinging from tree-to-tree like Tarzan, and just ‘forget’ about writing about a cuisine that is somewhat unexceptional compared to what we’ve experienced on the trip so far.
That was my idea until I serendipitously found some scrumptious local chocolate to experiment with for the Costa Rican edition of The Dish. And the phrase ‘gallo pinto’ kept coming up again and again in conversation.
Oh, a chicken dish, I thought. I guess that’s ok. But it turned out to be rice and beans. Rice and beans? Yep. The staple of Costa Rican cuisine.
Gallo Pinto Recipe from Costa Rica for Weekend Eggs
I sampled gallo pinto a couple of times with eggs for breakfast and brunch. Let’s just say, it’s the kind of dish that you should only eat when you’ve concluded a pre-breakfast activity like surfing for a couple of hours, working a field since dawn, or running a marathon.
This stuff is filling. It’s the kind of food that when you’ve finished you feel like you’re going to have what one of our friends in Australia calls “a food baby”.
Getting a recipe for such a simple dish as gallo pinto that didn’t overcomplicate matters was as challenging as eating a couple of ramekin-sized portions of the stuff in one session.
Everyone had an opinion on gallo pinto and everyone had different ideas about how various stages of gallo pinto should be prepared and exactly what ingredients were acceptable to ensure it was an authentic Costa Rican gallo pinto.
Tips to Making this Gallo Pinto Recipe from Costa Rica
Everyone we met in Costa Rica was consistent on two points regarding gallo pinto: you must soak your own beans and you must cook the rice the day before. I can see the logic in both cases.
Firstly, there is something special about soaking your own beans rather than buying them in a tin. Yes, even a humble dish like gallo pinto brings out my inner food snob.
But the main reason for soaking the beans overnight is that you control the cooking time of the beans the next day. If the beans are too soft (like many canned beans can be) the dish doesn’t work.
Plus, and this is a big plus, you want to keep the black water from cooking the beans, as this liquid is a special ingredient in gallo pinto in the same way that pasta water is used to finish a pasta dish.
Secondly, cooking the rice for gallo pinto the day before helps ensure you get the right texture for the rice as well as the final dish. If your rice is too mushy or moist, the dish doesn’t work.
While gallo pinto is a popular breakfast dish in Costa Rica, served with fried or scrambled eggs, it’s also a great side dish for a main course – typically pork or chicken in the part of Costa Rica we were in.
I prefer gallo pinto with fried eggs that still have a soft yolk so that you can mix the yolk into the gallo pinto.
A final note: gallo pinto can be bland, mainly due to under-seasoning of the beans and the final mix.
If you’re using chicken stock in your gallo pinto instead of water (using water makes this a great vegetarian dish!) this won’t be as much of an issue, just check the seasoning before serving.
In Costa Rica, home cooks sometimes use a local salsa called Salsa Lizano, either during the cooking process or placed on the table as a condiment so you can season the dish yourself.
Some say that you can substitute HP Sauce or Worcestershire sauce, but both are a poor substitute.
Gallo Pinto Recipe from Costa Rica
Ingredients
- 500 grams dried black beans
- 1 medium white or brown onion finely chopped
- 1 small red capsicum finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 cups white rice
- 3 cups chicken stock or water for vegetarian version
- 1 bunch cilantro coriander, leaves picked, stems cleaned, and chopped finely
- Salt to taste
- Vegetable oil
Instructions
- Place beans in a huge pot, cover generously with water, and soak overnight
- Cook the rice using the absorption method (Google is your friend!), however, use chicken stock for a richer flavour and water if you’re vegetarian. Stop the cooking process while the rice still has ‘bite’. Drain the rice. After cooling, place it in an airtight container in the fridge.
- The next morning, drain the beans and add fresh water to the pot. Add a generous sprinkle of salt, add the beans, and simmer for a couple of hours. The beans, when ready, should be soft, but still have a little bite like perfect risotto rice.
- In the meantime, in a large pan (you’ll be finishing the dish in this, so make sure it’s big enough!), add some vegetable oil and bring up to medium heat. Add the onions, capsicum and coriander stems, and stir until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, and when fragrant, add the rice. Stir to combine.
- When the beans are ready, drain the beans but reserve the ‘black water’.
- Add the beans to the rice. Stir gently but thoroughly. Add some ‘black water’ to keep the dish from sticking.
- The most attractive way to serve this dish is placing a good chunk of it in a small bowl and upturning it onto a plate. As much as that reminds me of horrid French brasserie fare, it is the best way to serve it so it doesn’t look like prison food. Sprinkle the rice with some cilantro (coriander) or sliced spring onions.
- You know you’re not going to finish a batch in one sitting, but the good news is that it tastes better the second time round. Make sure you’ve kept that ‘black water’ to reheat the mix!
Notes
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make our gallo pinto recipe from Costa Rica in the comments below as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
My colleague in Costa Rica on Pocketcultures wrote about this but she didn’t include a recipe so I’m keen to give this a go. I still need to think of something from New Zealand that I can send her as a swop with a bottle of Lizano sauce because I understand you can’t eat it without. God, I hope I don’t end up with a food baby!
Hi Marie,
Thanks for your comment. We ate gallo pinto with born and bred locals on a couple of occasions and no-one reached for the sauce. Perhaps it was already in the gallo pinto?
It’s one filling dish, that’s for sure! Was great after a surf.
Cheers
T
Last August my sister travelled around Costa Rica and she gave me a bottle of Salsa Lizano as a souvenir. Now, I’ve a recipe!
There you go! It’s a very Costa Rican condiment, a perfect souvenir. Good luck!
Wow, you have beautifully decorated this post. I really appreciate it very much. People like you also exist in the world. Who share everything. And there are some people who do not share anything with anyone. I wish today’s youth wrote your kind post, thank you very much.
Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated :)