Stop replacing the meat

The hole exists because of the plate structure, not the ingredient.

Removing meat from a protein-starch-vegetable plate leaves a visible absence, and the substitute product is the obvious answer. Manufactured substitutes have improved considerably and they are useful, particularly for people cooking for a mixed household or in transition.

They are not the only approach and building every meal around one is both expensive and limiting. The cuisines with the longest vegetarian traditions organise a meal differently: several dishes of comparable weight eaten together, with contrast between them, and no single centre.

That structure removes the problem rather than solving it. A meal of a lentil dish, a vegetable dish, a grain and something sharp and pickled is complete without anything occupying the position where meat was, because the position does not exist.

It also happens to be how most people can realistically cook on a weeknight, since the components can be made at different times and combined, which is much easier than assembling a single centrepiece.

The other advantage of the several-dishes structure is that it forgives a failure. If one component is dull, the meal still works, because nothing was carrying it alone. A single centrepiece that does not come off leaves nothing, which is a substantial part of why people find this cooking stressful.