Maui Tacos

April 20th, 2009

Tacorritos!
Hola!

There is a restaurant here in Hawaii(and apparently elsewhere across the US) called
Maui Tacos, and I will share some information on them with you, but tonight I made tacos for dinner. Well, a cross between tacos and burritos.


Typically burritos are made with the big flour tortillas, but being gluten-free I don’t eat the flour tortillas. I eat corn, and I actually now have a preference for corn tortillas. My dad told me that there is a taco stand down the road from his house now, and that he always gets corn tortillas. The woman working at the stand asks him every time wether he’d prefer corn or flour. He tells her corn, and every time he tells her that she looks very confused but gives him the corn tortillas anyway. I guess most white American men prefer flour, or at least in her mind they do.

To get back to my tacorritos here is the recipe adapted from $5 dollar dinners.

Vegetarian Lentil Spinach Tacorritos
  • 1 cup brown rice, cooked (Leftover brown rice works great here to help make cooking this meal go much more quickly.)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
  • 1 teaspoon Goya Adobo powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 14 Mission corn tortillas
  • 1 cup Tillamook white cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1 bunch fresh spinach
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Sour cream or substitute, and salsa

x. Preheat your oven to 250F.

1. If you haven’t already cooked up your rice, do so before beginning on the rest of your meal preparation. This could take you up to an hour or more depending on how you cook your brown rice.

2. Rinse the lentils, and then put them in a pot with water coming up to about an inch or so above them. Bring this to a boil, and then simmer it for 30 minutes, or until the lentils are soft and most of the water is absorbed. Drain off any unused water.

3. Put the lentils and brown rice into a large skillet with the diced tomatoes with green chiles.

4. Add in all of the spices, including salt and pepper, and mix well.

5. Tear up the spinach into bite sized pieces and place it into the skillet as well. Mix everything together well and let the spinach wilt for about 5 minutes. Heat all of the this through well.

6. Warm the corn tortillas in another skillet to make them more pliable. Then, add the filling to each tortilla. Add about a golf ball sized amount. Top the filling with the shredded cheese and roll the tortilla shut.

7. Repeat the above process until all of the filling is used. Place the tacorritos into a large baking dish and place the dish in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the tortillas reach the crispness you desire.

8. Top with sour cream or substitute, and salsa.

Now, to discuss Maui Tacos.

For those who are gluten-free, it’s a pretty good restaurant to know about when you’re on Maui.

Their website states:

Gluten Free Menu:
All items on our menu are gluten free, except for the items that include a flour tortilla. Our burritos always feature a flour tortilla, but you can order a burrito bowl instead. A bowl has all the same ingredients as a burrito except for the tortilla. All other items are made with corn. Our enchilada sauce also has some flour in it, but all salsas are gluten free. All meats, beans and rice are made gluten free.


I’ve never been made sick by eating their food, but you should be very clear in what you want when you order. But, this is true no matter where you dine.


They do something the website calls a “burrito bowl”, but don’t ask for that because they won’t know what you’re talking about. Just ask for a burrito, no tortilla. Then it’s kind of like a taco salad. This is great for when you see something delicious on the burrito menu, but can’t eat it because of the tortilla.


Their tacos are what I believe is pretty authentic for tacos. Anthony Bourdain dined at a near border taco stand on his trip to Mexico on his TV show, and those tacos were meat, soft corn tortillas, salsa verde, and cilantro. At Maui tacos, you get the soft corn tortillas, meat (or not), lettuce, and you can choose your own salsa and wether or not you want other additions at their salsa bar.


Here’s an interesting note about Maui Tacos: their owner also owns a small Italian restaurant that offers gluten-free spaghetti for an additional dollar, and soy cheese for a dollar. I haven’t had the opportunity to try it, but when I do I will most certainly blog about it.


For those of you who have been searching the web for gluten-free restaurant information, I hope this post helps with dining out.


Aloha!

UPDATE 5/16/10:

Unfortunately the last two times I dined out at Maui Tacos in the last two months I have become very ill. I know that I have recommended this restaurant to many of you before, but until the restaurant assures me that they are making serious efforts to eliminate cross contamination I will not be dining there myself. I sent them an e-mail this morning expressing my concerns and offering my assistance in understanding what it takes to offer gluten-free food to residents and visitors to the island who have Celiac Disease. I can only hope that they care enough to become one of the few places where it is safe for us to dine.

Please accept my sincerest apologies if you have dine at Maui Tacos and have become ill. It was not my intention. My intention is to bring you information on places to eat that are safe, and to share information on the latest food finds around the island. Once again, I am extremely sorry.

3 Responses to “Maui Tacos”

  1. Laurie says:

    I’ll be there next week! Can’t wait. Thanks for the write-up. : )

  2. Amanda on Maui says:

    I hope you enjoy your trip! Let me know if I can provide information on any other restaurants or stores for you.

  3. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by GfreeMaui. GfreeMaui said: Sadly I had to retract a restaurant recommendation from the website. More information: http://www.glutenfreemaui.com/2009/04/20/maui-tacos/ [...]

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