Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes

Gallo pinto, served at breakfast with fried eggs, plantain, bacon, avocado, a corn tortilla and sour cream

The main Costa Rica staple, known as Gallo Pinto, consists of rice and black beans, which in many households is eaten at all three meals during the day.

Gallo pinto is also known in some Southern Areas of Costa Rica as burra, though still recognised the name is rarely used as it is mostly referred to as gallo pinto. Also, Costa Rican gallo pinto is made with black beans, while Nicaraguans use red beans traditionally.

Ingredients

  • 1 package (450g or 16 oz.) dry beans (black beans preferred). 15 Oz can beans are 2 cups of cooked beans.
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1 bulb garlic, minced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • optional, 1-2 whole dried or fresh hot peppers
  • 1-2 cups rice (you can use the same amount of rice than beans; this is, 3 cups of beans for 3 cups of rice).

Procedure

Beans

  1. Soak beans overnight, or, bring to a bowl and let sit for one hour.
  2. In a Dutch oven or large pot, sauté onions and garlic in olive oil on medium heat until onions are translucent.
  3. Add red pepper, and sauté for a few minutes more.
  4. Add beans and enough water to cover all ingredients.
  5. Add spices, bring to a boil, then lower heat and cover, stirring occasionally until done, (1-2 hours, depending on the age of your beans).

Rice

  1. Add rice and twice as much water to pot. (i.e. 1 cup rice =2 cups water, 1 1/2 cups rice = 3 cups water)
  2. Bring to a rolling boil until the water has boiled down to the level of the rice.
  3. Reduce heat to a light simmer and cover for 20 min.

Serve the beans over the rice and enjoy!!!

Notes, tips, and variations

  • Use canned beans instead of dry (greatly reduces cooking time, but doesn't allow for the flavor to soak into the beans as well).
  • You can employ Instant Pot instead of canned beans, in pressure cooker mode.You can cook more beans that needed and store them in the fridge upto a week, to make more gallopinto later.
  • Use a crockpot.
    • Sauté vegetables in a skillet, then add all ingredients (except rice, mainly the soaked beans) for 5 minutes to the crockpot before you leave for work, go to school, whatever. When you come home, beans are ready!. Then fry the cooked rice for 3 minutes with the other ingredients (or fry the cooked rice for 3 minutes and put the beans an the other hot ingredients over it).
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