Here in Costa Rica, the focus of their cuisine is rice and beans (Gallo Pinto) with an emphasis on fresh fruit and veggies. They also enjoy a lot of fresh fish, eggs, fresh cheese, plantains and tortillas. Everything has a latin flare with lots of spice and fresh herbs.

I love the simplicity of the meals here. We eat a lot of rice and beans, ridiculous amounts of mangos and avocados, and make a lot of pico de gallo with raw onion, fresh tomato, cilantro, garlic, lime and salt. YUM! You can really taste the freshness of the food. Things don’t keep for long around here (it’s way to hot for that) so produce is picked and sold quickly meaning we always get the freshest food!

Today I wanted to share a traditional Costa Rican meal that you can recreate at home! All of the ingredients must be fresh to make this meal or else it won’t have the same flavor profile. If you can’t find fresh mango, you could always use fozen mango that has been thawed.

WHAT YOU NEED

• 1 can of black beans (we’ve been making our own big batches to reduce waste)
• 1/2 red onion chopped finely
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 plantain chopped on thinly (pro-tip: buy one a few days before you go to use it and allow it to ripen until almost brown on your counter for best taste!)
• 1/2 ripe avocado, sliced
• 1/2 fresh mango, chopped
• fresh greens- arugula, spinach, lettuce or a spring mix would work.
• a drizzle of lemon tahini
• hot sauce! We’ve been loving Lizano (a local brand)
• Sea salt and cumin

WHAT TO DO

1. Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil (any quality would work) on fairly high heat. You want the onions to get a little browned and crispy.
2. Add the salt, cumin (1 tsp) and black beans and fry together until the beans are heated throughout.
3. Remove the beans mixture from the pan, splash a little more oil in there and fry up your plantain. About 5 minutes, and then flip them in the pan and cook for another 5 minutes. You also want these to brown but not burn:)
4. While the plantains are frying up, start making your plate. Arrange your green salad mix, sliced avocado, chopped mango and black beans on a plate. 
5. Once the plantains are done, add them to the beautiful plate of food, season with a little more sea salt, sprinkle on some hot sauce and voila! A quick and easy traditional Costa Rican dish.

We’ve been playing around with this formula and the options are endless. You could add salsa to the beans, use the avocado to make guacamole, play with different spices, add rice, wrap everything in a corn tortilla, or make a different kind of salad to go with it. You could even use green (ish) bananas if you can’t find plantains, they fry up nicely as well.

I hope this brings a little taste of Costa Rica into your home!

Pura Vida:)