Gallo pinto
The name means "spotted rooster", after the look of rice stained by black beans. It is a leftovers dish and works best as one: the rice must be yesterday's and cold. Fresh warm rice carries wet starch on its surface and glues itself into paste when stirred with beans. Cold rice has firm, separate grains, so it only takes on colour.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Vegetables 8 min
- Beans 6 min
- Rice 8 min
- Plantain and eggs 8 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneFry onion, pepper and coriander stalks
Fry the finely diced onion, pepper and chopped coriander stalks in 2 tablespoons of the oil for 8 minutes. The stalks carry more aroma than the leaves and stand up to frying — the leaves go in at the end, since heat blackens them.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp oil · 1 pcs onion · 1 pcs red pepper · 3 cloves garlic · ½ bunch coriander
Add garlic and the beans with their liquid
Add the garlic for a minute, then the beans with about 100 ml of their dark liquid. That liquid is what colours the rice — without it gallo pinto is white with black dots instead of evenly speckled. Reduce for 5 minutes.
Ingredients: 400 g black beans · 600 g rice · 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce · ½ tsp ground cumin · ½ tsp salt
The bean liquid is the only thing colouring the rice.Add cold rice and fold with a spatula
Add the cold, day-old rice and fold with a wide spatula, lifting rather than pressing. The grains should separate and take on colour. Warm rice at this point would turn to glue and the dish would be lost.
Ingredients: 400 g black beans · 600 g rice · 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce · ½ tsp ground cumin · ½ tsp salt
Cold rice — grains separate and firm.Season and fry for eight minutes
Add the Worcestershire sauce, cumin and salt and fry for 8 minutes over medium heat, stirring rarely. The rice should catch and colour slightly against the base — those toasted grains are wanted in gallo pinto and give it its character.
Ingredients: 400 g black beans · 600 g rice · 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce · ½ tsp ground cumin · ½ tsp salt
Evenly speckled rice with toasted patches.Stir in the coriander leaves off the heat
Take the pan off the heat and only now stir in the chopped coriander leaves. Added earlier they wilt and blacken — and they are what gives this dish the freshness nothing else here provides.
Ingredients: 400 g black beans · 600 g rice · 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce · ½ tsp ground cumin · ½ tsp salt
Serve with egg and fried plantain
In the remaining tablespoon of oil fry diagonal slices of plantain until golden, 2–3 minutes a side, then fry the eggs. Set them beside the rice with a spoonful of sour cream. Sweet fried plantain against savoury rice is a contrast often found on breakfast plates across Central America.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 2 pcs plantains · 100 g sour cream
Before you start
Salsa Lizano
Costa Rica's Lizano sauce cannot be fully replaced — it is sweet, sour and vegetal at once. Worcestershire sauce with a little sugar and a pinch of cumin is the closest substitute available elsewhere.
Starting from dried beans
Cook 200 g of dried black beans with a bay leaf and half an onion. Do not throw away the cooking water — it is dark, thick with starch, and it is what colours the rice. From a tin, choose beans in dark rather than clear liquid.
Rice for the next day
Cook the rice in the evening, spread it thinly on a tray to cool fast and refrigerate it within an hour — cooked rice should never sit out overnight at room temperature. Left in the pan it cools slowly, keeps steaming and comes out too soft.
