Flavor does not matter, presentation does not matter but the food shouldn’t make you sick, and should ideally have enough calories per day for the average person to survive (2000 kcal min).
Edit: I am not in any danger of starving or malnutrition, nor am I insolvent. I’m mainly asking this question out of curiosity on how people would approach a solution :)
I have a cookbook that suggests bulgur wheat for that chewiness. The author writes that her (vegetarian) daughters thought it was a ground beef recipe at first!
My mom does bulgur wheat and it does a pretty good job at the texture. I prefer to do canned chickpeas run through a food processor just until roughly chopped, or use a potato masher. Readd the drained liquid after. Both work great, but I’d rather have more beans than wheat in my diet.
Every time I make chili it’s a toss up for what recipe I use. Meat or no meat, chili powder or dried chilis. There are a lot of great ways to make it and it’s hard to stay put.
If you like that chewiness, try farro.