Texture is what people actually miss

Softness throughout is the most common complaint.

Vegetarian meals frequently end up uniformly soft: a stew, a curry, a bake, all with the same yielding texture. That is what people are responding to when they say a dish was unsatisfying, more often than flavour.

Contrast is straightforward to add and is mostly a matter of remembering. Toasted nuts or seeds, fried breadcrumbs, a raw element, crisp fried onions, something pickled, or a component roasted hard while the rest is soft.

It is worth building it in as a habit rather than as a garnish. A bowl of something soft with a genuinely crunchy element scattered over it is a different eating experience, and it costs a few minutes.

The other textural tool is not cooking everything to the same degree. Vegetables added at different points, so some retain bite while others break down, produce a dish with internal variation that a single addition cannot.

There is one texture worth learning to produce deliberately, which is a genuinely crisp edge on a vegetable. It requires high heat, dry surfaces, adequate fat and enough space, and it is the single technique that most changes how people respond to a vegetable dish. Roasting at a temperature most home cooks find alarming is usually the answer.