3 cups cooked rice
2 cups cooked black beans
1/2 onion, chopped
garlic
1 tablespoon green or red pepper
1-2 tablespoons coriander
oil
3 tablespoons Lizano \"Salsa Ingles\" (only available in Central America)
alternative: 1 tablespoon worcester sauce

Sear onions with the onions at middle heat. Add beans and cook for 3 more minutes. Add coriander and salsa lizano (or worcester sauce) and stir well.
Gallo Pinto is usually served with natilla (sort of a sour cream). Our gourmet Franck serves it with queso crema, which is a kind of cream cheese. Philadelphia spread is a good substitute.

buen provecho!

Gallo pinto is a central part of Costa Rican food culture. It contains rice and beans, which are the side to almost any local dish. Gallo Pinto was "invented" by using the leftovers from the day before: the "casado" - which used to be separate - becomes a "gallo pinto" when it is all fried together the next morning. Consider that the beans have to lay in water for an entire day before they can be cooked. Cooking them takes another 2-3 hours. Hence the custom to cook plenty in the evening and reuse it in the morning.

so the basics are these:

evening: rice and beans are served separate in the "casado" (despite its name, which means "married")
morning: "gallo pinto", i.e. mixed rice and beans