What perplexes me is that you have liquidated your portfolio due to perhaps over value of the market (?) and you are willing to wait a few years to reacquire it but you want to build it back up now to some extent because of inflation fears. It seems like a bit of a mixed message. Be that as it may...
To ward off inflation, you could short interest rate sensitive securities or buy inverse Treasury ETFs. I'll leave it at that since these are for experienced investors/traders.
Conventional wisdom is that commodities, gold, real estate, oil, inflation-indexed bonds (TIPS), REITs, floating rate preferred stocks, and to some degree stocks, are hedges against inflation. But that's simplistic because they don't always correlate. Rather than go in that direction, let me just address the derivatives you mentioned.
Your suggestion of buying call LEAPs 15% OTM on high beta stocks isn't a terrible idea but it has several problems I don't like:
On an expiration basis, the stock will have to rise up to the strike price (15%) plus the premium paid in order to break even. Share price increase before expiration may make money sooner but what that amount might be is time and price dependent and can only be estimated by using an option modeling software on the web or from your broker.
Buying 30% OTM is more of a lottery pick and you'll need to have some really good stock pickability to overcome that
High beta stocks tend to have much higher premiums so you will pay more dearly for options on them. That's not a problem if your picks work out well - just a larger obstacle to overcome and a larger loss if they don't work out.
Make sure to factor dividends into your calculations because share price is reduced by that amount on the ex-div date and while that reduces the cost of a call, it increases the amount that the underlying must rise to achieve a gain or break even.
Another consideration might be using high delta call LEAPs (1-2 years out) as a surrogate for long stock. The call LEAP cost is much less than the stock, you'll pay a much more modest amount of time premium (assuming they are not high beta/high IV) and the theta decay is almost non existent early on. On a one to one basis, if the market tanks, they have less risk than the underlying. You can Google "Stock Replacement Strategy" for more info.
If so inclined, you can also write OTM short calls against them, turning your long call LEAPs into diagonal spreads and lowering your cost basis. This is called the "Poor Man's Covered Call" which you can also Google.
The problem with the Stock Replacement Strategy and the PMCC is that you might have more exposure than you currently want, given that you liquidated everything. If you want to participate in to the upside, you have to be in it to win it which I'm not sure that you want to do (the liquidation).
Another way to generate some yield could be to sell OTM puts on stocks that you would be happy to own at lower prices. Look at 30-45 days out to maximize theta decay and ROI though sometimes, ROI for 2-3 months is almost equivalent. In this period of relatively low volatility, you won't get much premium but if all works well, you'll have a steady income exceeding the yield on your cash in the bank. If not, you'll acquire quality stocks (or ETFs) that you are willing to own at lower prices.