Costa Rican Recipes

Costa Rican cooking is simple, fresh and built on rice and beans. Gallo pinto, a stir-fry of the two, is the classic breakfast, and casado, a plate of rice, beans, a protein, salad and fried plantain, is the everyday lunch served in small family restaurants called sodas. The cuisine mixes Indigenous corn traditions, Spanish cooking and Afro-Caribbean influences on the Limón coast, where coconut milk, thyme, ginger and Scotch bonnet chile flavor the rice and stews. Roots and fruit grow everywhere, so cassava, plantain, chayote, squash and palm hearts appear often. Seasoning is gentle and based on onion, sweet pepper, garlic and cilantro, with hot sauce or pickled chilies on the table. Corn shows up in tortillas, tamales and sweet drinks, tamales are the food of Christmas, and olla de carne is the big Sunday soup. Coffee goes with almost every snack.

Staple ingredients

• rice
• black and red beans
• plantains
• cassava and other roots
• corn
• sweet peppers and onions
• cilantro
• coconut milk (Caribbean coast)

• Breakfast 1
• Soups 2
• Main Dishes 3
• Side Dishes 1
• Desserts 1
• Snacks 2

Breakfast

• Gallo Pinto (Costa Rican Rice and Black Beans)CR30 minEasy

Soups

• Olla de Carne (Costa Rican Beef and Vegetable Soup)CR3 hEasy
• Sopa Negra (Costa Rican Black Bean Soup with Poached Egg)CR1 h 50 minEasy

Main Dishes

• Arroz con Pollo (Costa Rican Chicken and Rice)CR1 h 15 minMedium
• Casado (Costa Rican Lunch Plate with Steak and Onions)CR55 minMedium
• Tamal Navideño (Costa Rican Christmas Tamales)CR4 h 20 minChallenging

Side Dishes

• Rice and Beans (Costa Rican Caribbean Style)CR45 minEasy

Desserts

• Arroz con Leche (Costa Rican Rice Pudding)CR1 hEasy

Snacks

• Chifrijo (Costa Rican Rice, Beans and Pork Cracklings Bowl)CR1 h 40 minMedium
• Patacones (Costa Rican Twice-Fried Green Plantains)CR50 minEasy