Simple Goodness
Plum Bistro chef and owner Makini Howell’s new cookbook makes vegan recipes easy
By Seattle Mag March 22, 2025
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Seattle magazine.
Plum Bistro restaurant owner and chef Makini Howell recently created some tasty vegan recipes for Stevie Wonder. Now she wants to do the same for you — sort of.
Howell, who launched the popular vegan restaurant in Capitol Hill 20 years ago, just released a new plant-based cookbook, Simple Goodness: No-Fuss, Plant-Based Meals Straight From Your Pantry. The book features more than 140 recipes home chefs can easily create, and even includes a chapter on kid-friendly meals such as breakfast and packable school lunches.
Recipes include chipotle plant-beef and bean tostadas; barbecue tofu steaks with roasted yams; and sweet Georgia peach pie. You can also catch Howell on KING 5’s Evening every month on her show Makini’s Kitchen.
Wonder even wrote the foreword for the book.
“Makini’s cooking will excite and satisfy you,” Wonder wrote. “She can teach you how to become vegan for the rest of your life if you desire. Her ways should be passed on from generation to generation, for generations to come.”
The book was published by Hatchette last month and is available on Amazon and other sites.
Editor’s Note: Makini Howell sold the restaurant in January 2024.
Follow Us
Palace Kitchen Celebrates 30 Years
The Belltown staple still feeds the city after 10 p.m.
After the last tickets come off the rail, floor mats are hauled out to be hosed down, oven hoods are scrubbed, aprons come untied, and someone counts the drawer. It’s a familiar ritual in restaurant cities everywhere. When the shift ends, cooks and servers go looking for a drink and something to eat. For three…
Protein Without the Pressure
In her new cookbook, Seattle author and dietitian Rachael DeVaux keeps healthy eating grounded in real life.
Rachael DeVaux is not afraid of beef. That might sound obvious, but in a wellness culture still haunted by plain chicken breast and low-fat everything, her enthusiasm for grass-fed ground beef feels almost radical. The Seattle-based New York Times bestselling author, personal trainer, and founder of Rachael’s Good Eats has built a following of more than 3.5…
Restaurant Roundup: Nordic Cuisine and a Brazilian Brick-and-Mortar
Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.
Monday nights are worth celebrating—you made it through the first day of the week, so why not treat yourself to a delicious meal? Unfortunately, but understandably, plenty of restaurants are closed. But at these spots, not only are the kitchens still serving, the quality doesn’t drop off post-weekend, providing a perfect opportunity for a surprise…
Whisky in the Wild
Good spirits.
Over the summer, Westland Distillery announced a new offering, inspired by Washington State. Made in Seattle and taking cues from the Northwest outdoor lifestyle, Watchspot Whiskey blends eight-year-old Westland American Single Malt with grain whiskey from America’s heartland, resulting in a pour that has notes of toasted grain, milk chocolate, biscuit, apricot, and cherry pie….