A pupusa is a flatbread made with corn or rice flour and it’s usually stuffed with fillings like cheese, pork, beef, beans, chicken, shrimp or jalapenos. Pupusas can be a complete, convenient meal or snack, especially when you can buy them ready to heat from Costco like these Del Real Foods Pupusas. I picked these up to try to find out if something so convenient could taste authentic and good.
If you’re looking for something to dip the Pupusas in you might want to check out the Rojo’s Black Bean Six Layer Dip, Don Pancho Cilantro Lime Crema, Kirkland Signature Organic Chunky Guacamole and the Rojo’s Street Corn Dip.
Location in Store
We bought these in Kona, Hawaii for a snack/appetizer and they’re located in the refrigerated deli section at Costco, near the other appetizers and fresh pasta. The item number is 1671061.
Taste
These are okay, not amazing. They’re kind of similar to a soft in the form of a flatbread with a thicker shell. The shell is actually kind of thin on the top and the bottom but has a very thick edge.
The shell has a really nice corn flavor that I enjoy and if you pan fry them the shell gets nice and crispy. The filling is quite salty but not very flavorful, it has as a noticeable amount of heat but not enough to turn people off. I’m a bit turned off by the texture of the beef, it’s similar to a pasta. I also felt a bit disappointed that these don’t taste that meaty or cheesy, they could use more cheese.
I also don’t find them that flavorful on their own and think they need to be served with guacamole, salsa and sour cream to make them more enjoyable.
Cost
There are 10 individually packaged pupusas in the box and I paid $13.99 USD which isn’t cheap but isn’t overly expensive either. It’s about $1.40 per pupusa.
Convenience
There are heating instructions for stove top, air fryer and microwave methods on the package. We heated them on the stove top and they turned out nice and crispy. I think they’d turn out crispy in the air fryer too.
Heating these in the microwave would be my last choice as I don’t think they’d get as crispy and could even be soggy. The pupusas need to be kept refrigerated and the best before date is about a month from when I purchased them. You can also freeze them if you’re not going to eat them before the best before date.
Nutrition
Calories
One pupusa contains 240 calories, 10 grams of fat, 700 milligrams of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, zero grams of fiber, one gram of sugar and 10 grams of protein. These aren’t terrible for you if you only eat one. The sodium is high and they’re not low in carbohydrates but they’re not super high in calories in fat.
Ingredients
The ingredients list is pretty straight forward with corn being the main ingredient in the shell and beef and mozzarella cheese being the main ingredients in the filling. These are great for those who are following a gluten-free diet. They also don’t contain any soy but do contain dairy (milk).
Scoring
Taste: 7/10
Cost: 7/10
Convenience: 9/10
Nutrition: 3/10
Overall
Walk on by!
I don’t hate these but I don’t love them either, I found them pretty bland so I don’t think I’d purchase them again.
Have you tried the Del Real Foods Pupusas from Costco? What did you think of them?
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
