It’s not an exaggeration to say: Kim O’Donnel helped turn me onto vegetable-focused cooking. I was the just-hired food editor of The Post when she was a popular Post food blogger, and she was the first to tell me about Meatless Mondays, and the first to persuade me to make a black bean burger.
O’Donnel moved to Seattle just a couple years after I moved to the District, but we’ve kept up over the years at conferences and through mutual friends, and as my eating habits have changed, I’ve continued to be inspired by her work. These days, she’s a self-described “part-time vegetarian,” and she’s on her third cookbook devoted to recipes that celebrate plants. The latest, “PNW Veg” (Sasquatch Books, 2017), celebrates the produce of her Pacific Northwest home.
I spoke to O’Donnel by phone about the book, the region and vegetables. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow.
How has your cooking changed since you moved to the Pacific Northwest?
We have three year-round farmers markets in Seattle itself, including one in my neighborhood. That has had a major impact on the way I shop and cook. In the growing season, there is a market six days a week for me to choose from. And then there all the dried legumes that are here. You’re getting garbanzos, black turtles, the pintos and also the heirlooms, all at the farmers market. That accessibility has changed the way that I cook. So has the variety. I didn’t realize that artichokes could seriously grow well enough here that farmers could bring them to market. On the other hand, there are the early sirens of spring, like nettles and fiddlehead ferns. I miss those purple peas from Virginny, but I feel like I won out here.