Rather than just leaving that protein portion out, I made my own vegetarian version of Italian sausage. I used LightLife vegetarian ground sausage for the base. I ground up my own fresh whole fennel seeds using a real mortar & pestle... I got both the fennel and the mortar & pestle from Artisano's Oils & Spices here in Indianapolis (highly recommended!).
I added that to the sausage with some green pepper and a touch of oil, and browned it in a skillet just like real ground sausage! The texture and flavor were spot-on!
For the goulash, I started it by sautéing onions and garlic in a garlic-flavored coconut oil. Then I added crushed tomatoes, salt, oregano, basil, rosemary, white pepper, and the rest of my ground fennel. After mixing that in, I added a generous amount of grated Romano cheese and the browned "sausage". While all of that was simmering, I boiled some pasta water, to add ditalini to the goulash. I also did a quick sauté of some baby sweet peppers and kidney beans.
Once the pasta was done, I stirred everything together and it was complete. It came out amazing! The people that tasted it couldn't even tell there was not meat in it... the freshly hand-ground fennel make a world of difference. All of the flavors and textures came through nicely, and it was definitely comfort food. Also, since it had a high proportion of vegetables and no meat, it was not too heavy.
... not to mention, I won the cook-off! :)
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