Chili beef fat substitutes
Not going to accept this, because a couple of professional cooks get primary credit, but here is the first draft for anybody interested. I am also still interested in any answers:
Coconut oil offers the saturated fat and body that I will be missing with a non-meat fat. Also palm oil, but I have several cups of cooking-grade coconut oil on hand already.
For nitrates, there are various seasoned salts that were suggested. I will be going with a mixture of sesame salt and a friend's line of umami salt.
For umami, powdered mushroom. I will be putting dehydrated shiitakes through a microplane, and sifting the results to remove any dirt.