Morningstar Farms makes a veggie-crumble in the freezer section that we used to use for vegetarian tacos when I was a kid. It'd need spices more than beef (see my comment below).
I agree with preservationgal! A vegetarian, crumbly not-meat would work well in place of the beef. The savory flavor is important to balance out the cabbage and complement the bread. Tofu probably wouldn't be a good substitute ... but only because it doesn't have the same crumble factor. The beef in the recipe goes through quite a bit--cooking, scooping, squishing into a pocket, baking, chewing, etc.--and you want something that will keep its shape and consistency well. Beans ... eh, they might work, but I think that the flavor of a meat substitute will be more compatible with the other ingredients. As I pointed out in a comment further down, you could also totally make up your own filling using whatever ingredients you liked :)
Hm... Maybe sub for the beef red lentils, slightly precooked but not quite to the falling-apart stage, with something to add some umami, say, fermented black beans? Or instead of the red lentils, some other relatively delicate dal, like moong dal? My sister would probably have some good ideas
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For an authentic runza, salt and pepper are all you really need. You need a good amount of both, but those are the only usual spices. I put in some minced garlic and was kind of disappointed with the result. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't the flavor I really wanted. If you haven't had a cabbage burger before, then it wouldn't make much of a difference
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You don't put any spices on the beef except salt and pepper?
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oh holy god. YES.
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