International Courant
Costa Rica is residence to one of many world’s Blue Zones, the place folks dwell longer and more healthy lives than common. I come from a small city within the Cartago area known as Llano Grande, recognized for its wealthy agriculture.
If a cookbook writer and a cooking instructor who was born and raised right here, I’ve all the time felt that our food plan and our ‘pura vida’ life-style are our secret to longevity.
For Costa Ricans, what we eat is simply as essential because the expertise within the kitchen and across the desk. We worth the group that comes with cooking. Rising up, I all the time helped my household put together our meals and even harvested among the components.
Lunches and dinners all the time lasted not less than an hour, and it was our time to speak about our day. This sort of aware, collective method to meals is one thing I take pleasure in sharing with the scholars who take my cooking courses. It is not simply in regards to the meals we eat, but in addition the connections that occur round it.
What Costa Ricans eat to dwell longer and happier
One of the simplest ways to explain Costa Rican delicacies is easy and recent. Our food plan depends closely on staples equivalent to recent greens, fruits, grains and beans.
Listed here are among the meals I cook dinner and eat day-after-day to really feel more healthy and happier in the long term.
1. Beans
Beans are an excellent supply of protein, fiber, advanced carbohydrates, prebiotics, nutritional vitamins and minerals. They’re linked to lowered threat of continual ailments equivalent to coronary heart illness and diabetes.
Black and purple beans are the most well-liked and are often served as a part of a casado (our conventional dish of rice, beans, greens and protein) or as a soup consisting of beans and greens.
Chickpeas and lentils are common right here and can be utilized as an alternative to the standard black beans.
2. Contemporary vegatables and fruits
Fruit and greens in Costa Rica are typically eaten recent, not canned or frozen. We often get our vegatables and fruits from native markets known as verdulerias.
A few of the most typical in our food plan are papaya, mango, banana, watermelon, pineapple and keenness fruit, and they’re both eaten on their very own or made into drinks and juices.
We use quite a lot of greens in Costa Rican cooking, together with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, avocado, onion, beets, yucca and zucchini. Greens are eaten uncooked, in easy salads with lime, or ready as picadillo, chopped and boiled, often blended with some animal protein for taste.
Picadillo de chayote might be my favourite. Chayote is a sort of squash that originates from Central and South America and isn’t quite common in the US. It is inexperienced and crunchy and tastes like jicama.
3. Rice and corn
Grains equivalent to rice and corn are current in our diets, however primarily as a complement to the beans and greens we eat.
For instance, the tortillas are used to eat the picadillo in what we name ‘gallos’. Arroz con pollo is a standard Costa Rican dish consisting of rice, a lot of chopped greens and several other items of rooster.
This meal could be very common at celebrations equivalent to birthdays, however can be eaten day-after-day.
4. Espresso
Costa Rican espresso is understood to comprise many antioxidants assist cut back irritation. Sugary drinks typically aren’t a giant a part of espresso ingesting tradition.
Espresso is drunk right here black or with a bit milk. And like every meal, it is best to take pleasure in a cup slowly; we do take the time to drink.
My favourite Costa Rican longevity recipe
We eat rice and beans, black or purple, two to 3 occasions a day. For lunch, this meal known as casado. For breakfast, it’s known as gallo pinto and consists of rice and beans blended with onions, peppers and cilantro, accompanied by corn tortillas and occasional.
Due to the mix of entire grains, proteins, amino acids and antioxidants, says longevity researcher and Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner gallo pinto to be the healthiest breakfast on the earth. It is superb how such a easy dish can present so many well being advantages.
Right here is my recipe for Gallo Pinto so you can also make it at residence.
Right here is an instance of my favourite Costa Rican breakfast, Gallo Pinto.
Photograph: Melissa Guzman
Substances:
2/3 cup cooked black beans 1 1/4 cup cooked rice 2 tablespoons chopped onion 2 tablespoons chopped pepper 2 tablespoons chopped coriander 1/2 teaspoon salsa lizano (elective) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Steps:
Warmth a pan over medium warmth, add olive oil and let it turn out to be scorching. Add onions, peppers, coriander, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. Prepare dinner for 3 to 5 minutes till the onion is translucent. Combine within the beans, stir, and switch the warmth as much as medium. Add the lizano sauce, stir and cook dinner for one more 5 minutes. Add the rice, stir and cook dinner for a number of extra minutes to make sure all of the flavors are absorbed into the rice
In my view, the recipe for why we dwell longer, more healthy, and happier lives in Costa Rica is easy: recent components ready with care and meals which are consciously loved and shared with family members.
Melissa Guzman is a Costa Rican cookbook writer and cooking instructor from Llano Grande, Costa Rica. She is the writer of ‘Longer, More healthy, Happier Lives: Recipes from Costa Rica.’ Comply with Melissa on Instagram @receptenvancostarica.
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Costa Rica Blue Zone recipes for on a regular basis use and meals that may final
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