My ultimate comfort food as a little girl was Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto. This mix of rice and red beans isn’t your average. It’s made with day old rice that’s fried with boiled red beans. Then it’s served with classic crema and smoked cuajada cheese.
Preparing Red Beans
Before you pull out those canned red beans, be warned that authentic Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto is made the old-fashioned way using bagged red beans. This DOES require more prep time but it honestly ensures the beans have the perfect texture. No mushy beans here!
First step – soak the bagged beans overnight or for at least 15 hours. You will know you did it right when the water has a tinted red hue. Next, drain that liquid and transfer the soaked beans in a pot. Add clean water to the pot (just enough to slightly cover the beans). Then, boil the beans for 20 minutes or until tender. While the beans boil, consider adding a tad bit of seasoning.
Warning: Similar to potatoes, bagged beans are highly porous meaning they absorb salt easily. So make sure to season LIGHTLY!
Since red beans are only one component in Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto, I didn’t want to season them with anything too bold. Keep it straight forward and season with 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt. Remember to reserve some of the bean liquid.
Day Old Rice
Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto is best made using day old white rice. A SECRET TIP for making the best rice is to first toast the grains before cooking them. It adds a caramelized flavor to the rice, that tastes so good.
Don’t have time to cook rice? I recommend using my Mama’s Tip: order a pint of rice from your local Asian take-out restaurant and leave the rice uncovered in the fridge for a few hours. By leaving it uncovered it dries out the rice and results with a similar texture to day old rice.
Execution
Now that you got your rice and beans prepped, it’s time to fry them together and make Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto.
- Using take out rice? Then begin by first toasting the rice in a skillet with some olive oil.
- If you cooked your rice and followed my secret tip (see above) then start by adding in some diced onions and green peppers to the skillet. Saute’ until tender and translucent.
Next, add in the beans with a bit of their liquid and fry them until they blister or crisp up. Flavor them as desired. I personally like a sprinkle of garlic powder. Then add in the rice. Ideally, you want equal parts of rice and beans. So if you added 2 cups of cooked beans to the skillet, then add 2 cups of rice as well.
You literally want the rice and beans to form a true marriage and stick together. To help achieve that semi-wet texture, pour in some more of that reserved bean liquid. It will give the rice a bit of tinted color and allow the rice and beans to really form together as uniform fried rice dish.
Last step is to serve the Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto with crema and cuajada, which is like a dry smoky cheese. Good substitutes for authentic cuajada are feta cheese or queso fresco.
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Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto – Rice and Red Beans
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of diced yellow onion
- 1 cup of cooked white rice
- 1 cup of cooked red beans
- Pinch of garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon of olive or canola oil
Instructions
- Add 1 tablespoon of oil to a medium-high heat pan and saute diced onions until translucent.
- Add cooked red beans to the pan along with some of bean liquid and begin to cook beans until they begin to crisp or blister a bit. Add a pinch of garlic powder.
- Then add equal parts white rice and mix with beans.
- If needed, add more bean liquid to achieve darker color to the rice.
- For firm Gallo Pinto, cook for 10 minutes. For semi-wet Gallo Pinto, cook for 7 minutes
