Making pupusas didn’t always come easy for Nidia Castro, owner and head pupusa-maker at Chévere. Chévere, located at 3399 Watt Avenue in Sacramento, is a Salvadoran restaurant that opened in late May. Castro said she started making pupusas only about 15 years ago, when her husband asked her if she could whip some up for him.At the time, the Salvadoran native didn’t know how to make pupusas, but she knew how to make tortillas, and figured it couldn’t be much different.A pupusa is a popular Salvadoran dish that is best described as a stuffed corn tortilla. Pupusas are traditionally made with pork, beans and cheese, and topped with a mix of salsa and curtido, a type of pickled cabbage. So she got to work preparing the masa and the filling. And the first batch, according to Castro, were “truly horrible and went straight to the trash.”But Castro says she didn’t give up. She kept working to perfect her recipe, and eventually people started asking if they could buy pupusas off her. For about 13 years, Castro was selling pupusas from her house to friends and family. But Castro and her daughter, Ana Masterson, always dreamed of having their own restaurant. Customers won’t find items like tacos and burritos at Chévere, as Masterson said they try to keep the food as authentically Salvadoran as possible -- with the exception of the vegan pupusas. Castro gives all the credit for the vegan pupusas to her daughter. The vegan pupusas are made with jackfruit and cashew cheese, and Castro said that the jackfruit is prepared in the same way she prepares meat. Masterson said the vegan pupusas were inspired by her belief that families should be able to eat together, no matter the dietary restrictions. “The idea for it was having your significant other, who is maybe vegan, and having them sit down with you and sharing a meal together. Not a lot of places have that,” Masterson said. She said she and her mom did research on how to imitate the texture and flavor of meat so that a meat-eater and a non-meat-eater can have the same experience. Castro and Masterson have made Chévere as family-friendly as possible, from the vegan pupusas to the brightly colored walls to the games of Loteria and Jenga on every table. Their biggest goal, however, is to get everyone as close to eating in El Salvador as possible. “They won’t regret coming in. They’ll think of their land, if they are Salvadoran. And if they are not Salvadoran, then welcome in,” Castro said.