Organic cuisine scene in Santa Teresa Costa Rica

In Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, organic healthy living is alive and well – especially at Pranamar Oceanfront Villas & Yoga Retreat.

Budda Eyes Restaurant at the beachfront Santa Teresa Costa Rica hotel is dedicated to serving healthy, nourishing and innovative cuisine.

“At Pranamar we try to satisfy not only your stomach, but also your soul with cuisine that is varied, distinctive, delicious and healthy,” explains Pranamar Villas Head Chef Rodrigo Soriano of Argentina.

Overlooking the lagoon-style pool at the Costa Rica beach resort, the open-air restaurant features organic fruits and vegetables, creative vegetarian cooking, local farm-fresh meats, and fresh just-out-of-the-ocean fish and shellfish. The Nicoya Peninsula hotel even grows some of its own fruit and vegetables.

“We buy our fish fresh each day from local fishermen in Santa Teresa and Malpais. It can’t get fresher than what we have!” commented Soriano, who has been working with Pranamar Villas for nine years, and leads the restaurant team with chefs Claudio “Cicco” Mazzone from Italy and Jesus Zabala from Venezuela.

Organic farm Hacienda Okhra

Pranamar Villas buys much of its produce from local organic farm Hacienda Okhra. The 43-acre Hacienda Okhra is a sustainable community of luxury homes, preserved tropical forest green spaces and the organic farm, located above the town of Malpais on the southern tip of Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. Located between the Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve and Santa Teresa, Hacienda Okhra is the visionary concept of owner Georges Lefebvre from France. It is named after the Okra plant that produces edible green seed pods famous in Southern USA cooking, and which grows on the farm.

All of the farm’s fruits and vegetables are grown using hydroponics and chemical-free organic practices, according to Hacienda Okhra information. The farmers utilize indoor vertical growing systems, outdoor raised beds, and also plant directly in the ground. Soil is enriched naturally with coconut fibers, natural compost from the farm, dirt from the ground, and garden compost and vermiposting (think: worms).

Water for the farm is all gravity fed once it gets pumped up to a water tower that draws directly from a well on the property. The system is designed as a natural reclamation system where the run-off flows directly into the outdoor gardens with any leftover ending up in the pond that feeds the well.

Buddha Eyes Restaurant at Pranamar Oceanfront Villas & Yoga Retreat

The Buddha Eyes Restaurant is open to the public for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. Pranamar Villas Costa Rica specializes in yoga and yoga retreats, and Costa Rica surf holidays on the spectacular Santa Teresa Beach. Pranamar holds daily yoga classes open to hotel guests and the public.

Article by Shannon Farley