Plum vegan cookbook author Makini Howell coming to Vancouver

Sasquatch Books has released Plum: Gratifying Vegan Recipes From Seattle’s Plum Bistro.

A few years ago, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner—specifically, the breaded portobello steaks and the Crazy Jamaican burger—at Plum Bistro (1429 12th Avenue) in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Seattle. Well, the restaurant’s owner and executive chef, Makini Howell, has authored a new vegan cookbook and it looks delectable.

Jerk tofu and roasted yam sliders from the Plum cookbook. (Charity Burggraaf)

Running 140 pages in hardcover, Plum: Gratifying Vegan Recipes From Seattle’s Plum Bistro was published this week by Sasquatch Books and features gorgeous photography by Charity Burggraaf and a brief foreword by Neal Barnard.

Habanero yam soup from Plum. (Charity Burggraaf)

The book’s chapters cover fundamentals; brunch; salads and soups; small plates; tofu, tempeh, and seitan; “transitional” raw food; pasta; grains; and desserts. The recipes—many of which are gluten-free and soy-free—include pesto plum pizza with balsamic arugula; roasted yam ravioli with apple tempeh fillets and chanterelle cream sauce; and peppered agave figs.

Toasted chocolate bread with cream cheese crème fraîche. (Charity Burggraaf)

In the introduction to Plum, Howell notes that she grew up vegan. Her company is 100-percent organic and sources 90 percent of its ingredients from farms in the region. “What you’ll find in these pages is a vegan reinterpretation of modern, smart, thoughtful food,” Howell writes. ”You can cook our recipes easily at home, and we have a wide enough variety that you can revel in our dishes at every meal.”

Makini Howell is coming to town. (Aya Tiffany Sato)

On May 26, Howell will be the special guest at an event hosted by Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks (1740 West 2nd Avenue) in Vancouver. Part of the Armoury District bookstore’s Sunday Supper: Company’s Coming series, the event costs $75 to attend, starts at 5 p.m., and includes a “comforting meal”.