Traditional gallo pinto: Costa Rica's rice and black beans with cilantro, onion and Lizano sauce

Gallo pinto means spotted rooster, and the name comes from the spots the black beans leave on the white rice. It is the everyday breakfast in Costa Rica, eaten Monday to Sunday with eggs, fried ripe plantain, fresh cheese, tortillas and natilla, the local sour cream. Nicaragua makes it the same way, with red beans, and the two countries argue over its origin with the same affection.

The recipe was born from leftovers: the rice and beans left from dinner, sautéed together in the morning with onion, bell pepper and cilantro. The rice must be from the day before, cold and loose, so it does not get mushy; the beans go in with a little of their own broth, which stains the rice. And the seasoning that makes gallo pinto tico is Lizano sauce, a sweet-and-sour, mildly spicy vegetable sauce that every Costa Rican home has on the table.

Outside Costa Rica, Lizano is found in Latin stores and online; a little Worcestershire sauce with a pinch of cumin and sugar is the closest substitute. In twenty minutes, it is the most filling and cheapest breakfast there is.

Recipe card

• Origin: Costa Rica
• Category: Rice and beans, breakfast or side dish
• Difficulty: Easy
• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cooking time: 20 minutes
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 3 cups cooked white rice from the day before, cold
• 2 cups cooked black beans with 1/2 cup of their broth
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons Lizano sauce (or 2 of Worcestershire sauce plus 1/2 teaspoon cumin and 1 of sugar)
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• To serve: fried or scrambled eggs, fried ripe plantain, fresh cheese, natilla or sour cream, corn tortillas

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion and bell pepper over medium heat for 4 minutes. Add the garlic for 1 minute.
2. Add the beans with their broth and the Lizano sauce and cook for 3 minutes, until the broth reduces a little.
3. Add the cold rice, break it up with the spoon and mix well, cooking over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, until the rice absorbs the broth, turns spotted and starts to toast lightly on the bottom.
4. Season with salt and pepper, turn off the heat and stir in the cilantro.
5. Serve with the eggs, fried plantain, cheese, natilla and tortillas.

Tips and variations

• Hot or freshly cooked rice turns to mush: make it the day before or spread the rice out to cool well.
• Red beans instead of black is Nicaraguan gallo pinto.
• A little bacon or chorizo at the start is the weekend version.
• On Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, gallo pinto has coconut milk and Panamanian chile.
• Leftovers reheat well and become burrito filling.
• A generous amount of Lizano sauce is the tico flavor; do not skimp.
• A coffee brewed in the chorreador, the Costa Rican cloth filter, is the mandatory partner.

Gallo pinto is the start of every day in Costa Rica: rice spotted with beans, cilantro and Lizano, with an egg and fried plantain on the side. Pura vida, as they say there.