Gallo Pinto (Costa Rican Rice and Beans)

"I found this recipe in a copy of Vegetarian Times. Gallo Pinto translates as "painted rooster", and is a dish eaten by many Costa Ricans almost every day. The addition of ginger and Worcestershire adds a quite unique flavor to this dish."
 
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photo by Jonathan Melendez photo by Jonathan Melendez
photo by Jonathan Melendez
photo by Jonathan Melendez photo by Jonathan Melendez
photo by Jonathan Melendez photo by Jonathan Melendez
photo by Aholland19 photo by Aholland19
photo by allysonenglert photo by allysonenglert
Ready In:
15mins
Ingredients:
12
Serves:
6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
  • Add onion and sauté until it just begins to soften and turns color.
  • Add garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until onion is golden.
  • Add spices and Worcestershire, and stir into onion and garlic.
  • (The first time I made this, I was afraid to add the full 3 Tbsp of Worcestershire, but the addition of the rice balances the flavor out).
  • Next, add the beans and then the rice.
  • Combine the rice and beans evenly and cook until mixture is heated through.
  • Add salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.
  • Garnish with some chopped cilantro or green onions if you prefer.
  • Vegetarians use only the vegetarian Worcestershire sauce.

Questions & Replies

  1. I recently bought a bottle of Lizano Sauce from Amazon. I'm wondering if I need to adjust the spices called for in the recipe ?
     
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Reviews

  1. Hello! I'm from Costa Rica!! The recipe is just fine, just the way we make it here! To add an extra touch you can use also chopped red bell pepper. We usually eat this for breakfast as it is a very filling dish. The best gallo pinto is made with left over beans, not freshly made ones. An other important observation; we don't exactly use worcetershire, we use a local version of it called salsa Lizano, a very traditional sauce, made by a local family, which resembles worcestershire, you can find it in the internet on costarican sites. It's great with sourcream or scrambled eggs.
     
  2. Excellent side for a latin inspired stir fry I made tonight. The only things I did differently was to add a bit of stock with the rice because my rice was a tad dry, the juice of half a lime and salt and pepper to taste.
     
  3. Hi guys I'm glad you like our Gallo pinto I think Gallo pinto from Costa Rica has different taste so you have to find similar rice and beans Central American use, our rice is more dry (no sticky) and our beans are kind of hard and little Finally I found products to make it similar in in US Fist Rice:riceland" Beans: "centralamerican" GOYA Ticos hardly use ginger, cumin or all that stuff We use: canola or olive oil, onions, red sweet pepper, cilantro or culantro, consomé de pollo (powdered chicken bouillon--NO chicken broth). And very very important the stuff that gives that lovely flavor is "salsa Lizano" there's in "bravo" supermarket or even you can get it on amazon! Hope that helps Pura vida maes!
     
  4. I have only just now downloaded the recipe, so I cannot comment on this particular version's merits yet. However, I look forward to trying it.<br/><br/>We were lucky enough to live in Costa Rica for about six months in the late 1980s. In our experience, when you ate breakfast in a restaurant, this was what you were served 99% of the time. Obviously, each cook had their own variation, however it was always very good, and sometimes absolutely outstanding. So I suggest you keep tweaking it and looking for variations until it is truly a remarkable dish. Which this may be to begin with. We tried to duplicate it in our own kitchen, while we lived there. But, we were never completely happy with it. This recipe looks like it might supply the missing ingredients.<br/><br/>There was a particular local brand of steak sauce, sort of halfway between HP sauce and Worcestershire sauce, that we suspected was an important ingredient.<br/><br/>We were on a very limited budget and only ate at very economical restaurants. The sort of place that the lower income Costa Ricans ate. Gallo Pinto was always the primary breakfast suggestion and at mid day, the businessman's special, or blue plate special, the lunch of the day, was always a plate with a serving of white rice and a serving of black beans and an entrée in the middle of the plate and a side of chopped salad on the plate. So, it is no mystery where they get their white rice and black beans. But the way they combine them can be absolutely magical with the right chef.
     
  5. This was very delicious. I thought the W sauce might be overpowering but I used 3 tablespoons and the flavours blended wonderfully! I used one can of black beans and the ratio of beans to rice was great!
     
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Tweaks

  1. I thought this dish was good. It was super quick and did only take about 15 minutes to prepare. I used brown rice instead of white and thought the ratio of beans and rice was perfect. I used only 2 tbsp of the worcestershire sauce and used fresh ginger, not powdered. This is a very economical meal and will be repeated. Thank you for posting. EDIT: I forgot to add that this recipe only fed the two of us for dinner.
     
  2. Nice, simple rice and beans recipe! Very quick and easy especially if you have cooked beans and rice on-hand and an excellent dish to make from leftovers. I made the same substitutions that Evelyn did, using olive oil and regular worchestershire sauce, but we also added a scant tsp of minced fresh ginger (added with the spices), which added a nice extra bite. I also used brown rice (we don't eat white rice). We garnished with cilantro as suggested, which was really nice. We also added some sour cream- yummy! I used all organic ingredients. Really good, yet not overly pungent spicing. I have to agree with Evelyn as well that the proportion of rice to beans was right on-target. Very well balanced dish. Great if you want something simple and tasty. Thanks for another nice one, Kozmic!
     

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