Look into seitan. It’s a chewy meat substitute made from gluten – wheat protein – and adds a bit of meaty texture to vegan dishes. Here’s a video showing one way to make it at home. There are other methods you can find on the web.
The woman in the video just says “flour,” but it’s best to use bread flour. Cake flour and all-purpose flour have relatively little gluten. Or you can see if your supermarket has “vital wheat gluten,” which already has the starch removed, so you can skip the first step of rinsing the starch out of the flour.
The curried black beans and sweet potatoes sounds great. A lot of flavor in a very simple recipe. I need more quick recipes like this. I know what I’m having for dinner tonight.
Not a recipe, but a word of… caution? Vegan cheese isn’t quite…there yet. The shredded “cheddar” type is ok in recipes where it’s mixed in and melted (but it takes longer than real cheese to melt) but if you’re looking for slices for a sandwich or something, forget it. And the supposedly melty fake mozzarella on pizzas isn’t very good, either. Just saying so you don’t get your hopes up. Fake meats have come a long way and many are excellent. Fake cheese hasn’t gotten nearly as far.