Dinner night · Costa Rica
Casado con Pescado
Costa Rica's lunch-counter plate, done at dinner: a pan-seared fish fillet with white rice, black beans, fried sweet plantain and a crunchy cabbage salad, with Salsa Lizano on the table.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 35 min
- Total
- 55 min
- Serves
- 2 adults + 1 child
- Budget
- $18–$26
A casado is not one recipe but a plate: a protein, white rice, black beans, a salad, fried ripe plantain and often a tortilla, each cooked separately and arranged side by side. This version uses a white fish fillet seasoned with lime, garlic and cumin and seared in a hot pan, rice cooked with onion and sweet pepper, black beans simmered with cilantro and oregano, plantain slices fried until caramelized, and a cabbage-tomato salad with lime. A bottle of Salsa Lizano, the tangy Costa Rican condiment, ties it together.
Why it's on our list
Costa Rica is one of the most-visited countries in the Americas, and the casado is what every visitor ends up eating at a soda, the small family lunch counters, so I want our version to be the real everyday plate. It is the opposite of a one-pot dinner: five small components, each easy, that teach how to run a stove with several pans going. Fish gives us a break from chicken, and beans, rice and plantain are the trio that anchors half of Central America. Nothing on the plate is spicy, so my son's casado is identical to ours, and he can eat the components in whatever order he likes.
Field notes · Origin & culture
The casado is the standard midday meal of Costa Rica, served at sodas across the country and built on rice and beans kept separate (unlike gallo pinto, the breakfast dish where they are fried together). The protein changes with the kitchen and the day: beef in sauce, chicken, pork chop, or fish near the coasts. The name means "married man," and two explanations circulate: that workers asked for a plate "like a married man eats at home," or that the rice and beans are "married" on the plate. Neither is documented, and Costa Ricans tell both. Salsa Lizano, first made in 1920, is a thin, sweet-tangy vegetable sauce that sits on nearly every soda table and is as much a part of the casado as the beans. The plate reflects the Spanish, Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean threads in Costa Rican cooking; the Caribbean coast adds coconut and chile the Central Valley version lacks.
Noteworthy ingredients
- White fish: Tilapia is the common casado fish inland in Costa Rica; mahi-mahi, snapper or cod all work. Fillets 3/4 inch thick sear in 6–7 minutes.
- Ripe plantains: Yellow with plenty of black and soft to the touch; green plantains will not caramelize. Most supermarkets stock them near the bananas.
- Salsa Lizano: Costa Rica's national condiment, sold in Latin markets and online. Worcestershire with a pinch of brown sugar and cumin is a rough stand-in. Check the label if gluten matters; formulations vary.
- Black beans: Canned is fine; simmering them 10 minutes with onion, garlic, oregano and cilantro stems gives them the soda flavor.
Prep — 20 min
- Dice the onion and bell pepper; mince the garlic. Separate the cilantro stems from the leaves and chop both.
- Pat the fish dry and season with salt, pepper, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1 minced garlic clove and the juice of half a lime.
- Shred the cabbage finely and dice the tomatoes. Toss with the juice of 1 lime, a pinch of salt and a few cilantro leaves; let it sit so the cabbage softens.
- Peel the plantains and slice on the diagonal 1/2 inch thick.
Cook — 35 min
- Rice: heat 1 tablespoon oil in the rice pot over medium heat, cook half the onion and the bell pepper 3 minutes, add the rice and stir 1 minute, then add 2 1/4 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Boil, cover, cook on low 18 minutes, rest 5.
- Beans: in a small saucepan, warm 1 teaspoon oil with the remaining onion and garlic 2 minutes. Add the beans with their liquid, the oregano, remaining cumin and the cilantro stems, and simmer gently 10–15 minutes until the liquid thickens a little. Season with salt.
- Plantains: heat 1 tablespoon oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Fry the slices 3–4 minutes per side until deeply golden and soft. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.
- Fish: wipe the skillet or use a second one. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high until shimmering, lay in the fillets, and cook 3–4 minutes without moving until the underside is golden. Turn and cook 2–3 minutes more until the fish flakes. Squeeze lime over it in the pan.
- Stir the cilantro leaves into the beans just before serving.
Serving
Arrange each plate casado-style, every element in its own spot: rice, a ladle of beans beside it, the fish, plantain slices, a heap of cabbage salad and avocado if using. Put the Salsa Lizano and lime wedges on the table; in Costa Rica people shake Lizano over the rice and beans. Nothing here carries heat, so my son's plate is the same as ours, and the fact that nothing touches is likely a point in its favor. A warm corn tortilla is traditional. Leftover rice and beans become tomorrow's gallo pinto: fry them together with onion and a splash of Lizano, and top with an egg.