What do you eat in Costa Rica?
Black beans and rice in a Casado from Costa Rica! The ultimate health food?
Costa Rican cuisine is really healthy, delicious, and varied.
Costa Rica is more than dazzling white beaches and deep jungles. It is also a proud culture and food tradition that is delicious, healthy, and “easy on the eyes”. In short, it is worth putting into the subject, but a little warning you will probably be hungry! Costa Rica’s gastronomic tradition borrows from the original tribes of Central America, the Spanish influence, and from African cuisine.
It is food for all senses. These are the freshest ingredients and everything from the sea and often black beans, which are signature ingredients. It should be added that there are significant regional differences, so it is worth traveling a bit, for that reason alone, if you want to learn about food in Central America.
Costa Rica’s lunch dishes based on Casado
Let’s take lunch as an example: Most Ticos (the term for the natives of Costa Rica) eat “Casado” for lunch. It is a fairly simple composition consisting of rice, beans, and meat. “Meat” can be from fish, chicken, or beef/lamb, etc. It is a free composition. Add to this a green salad or pasta. Casado comes in several variants as said, but can also be a “side order” or with french fries, avocado, in combination with tortillas with cheese, eggs or corn. Another lunch right could be “picadillo” which is a stew with potatoes, onions, peppers and lots of mild spices. Costa Rica food is generally mild.
Casado typical Costa Rican food
And what does Casado mean?
It may be a little fun to know that it means “a married man” or “a hunted man”, that is, a coveted man. It is a cheap dish, which is characteristic of Costa Rica’s kitchen, partly because it can be made from the ingredients you have at your fingertips. That’s the whole basic theme. It has its own interpretation in Costa Rica but is found in Central American cuisine more places and further south as well. It is a nutritious balanced dish with proteins, not processed carbohydrates and not too fat.
A recipe for Casado
Casado with black beans rice and pork: There are many variations, but there are almost always beans and rice, and small white rice grains are used. See this recipe that contains pork chops, rice, beans, garlic, tomato, carrots, black beans and cheese, and small tortillas can be added to it. A dish with very little fat and balance between protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
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