Ideas for sn ds who doesn't like food to touch on the plate!

[bananananacoconuts]

Ds is 6 and has suspected aspegers. Meal times have always been stressful as he does not like different foods to touch each other on the plate, and he is not adventurous at all! He does not do gravy and anything that.includes a sauce blows his mind!
He currently eats a nugget/fish finger meal roughly every third day with either a roast chicken and a dry pasta dish in between.
Could anyone suggest anything else i could try? He has expressed an interest in curry (mild!) but obviously without a sauce. I am not the worlds best cook but can follow instructions and am willing to try anything to broaden his food horizons!

How is he with meat or pasta that has been cooked with seasoning not sauce? That would be a way for him to experience more flavours without getting worried by sauces on his food. It's easy to dry fry some herbs and spices on to meat, especially the sort for aromatic curries.
Could you try putting all the components for a burger, ie bun, burger, cheese and a bit of salad and relish not sauce, on a segmented plate and encourage him to build it himself if he wants to?
Hope you find some tasty things for you both to try.

Yes I think marinades will be your friend. Tandoori marinade for chicken/fish etc, will give the curry flavour but no sauce.

Would he eat Kiev type things? You could stuff meat with various fillings, garlic, ham and cheese, spicy Moroccan type stuffing, fruity stuffing (pork) or similar

Does Pizza count as one type of food?

You can have a lot of different things in the sauce and topping.

Would different juices be ok ( perhaps a juicer would be your friend.)?

You could mix things like spinach in home made bread and fruit into otherwise plain cakes.

Make pasta with veg mixed in the dough.

Some sort of spicy kebab.

Goujons of chicken marinated overnight in olive oil and ground coriander - just fry them in a pan the following day.

Would buying a nibbles dish like this help with keeping the food separate?

If you have limited time to cook from scratch, you could try things from supermarket deli sections, flavoured chicken slices such as chicken tikka or Chinese flavoured. These are similar to the nuggets he already knows.
Lamb harissa koftas are quite mild and child sized, there is a Spanish chorizo version too.
Once you know what he likes you can make homemade versions from scratch.
He might like hot smoked salmon if he likes fish fingers, cook a fillet of it and cut up into fish finger size, would that introduce a new colour to his food?
Would he try dips if they were served in a small dish with his meal? I'm thinking of yoghurt dip with curried things.
Filled omelettes would be another way of introducing combinations of flavours and textures.
I shop at sainsburys, but I'm sure most supermarkets would stock similar deli items.

My son doesn't have SN, and at 13 is still repulsed by the fact I put my beans ON MY CHIPS.

I think one of those divider plates is your friend, and second the idea of dips.

ss doesn't like stuff touching either. bit of an issue with gravy
tho.

we have large dinner plates and we space stuff out. tbh I am meaner than most of you and I don't think that divider plates and the like are going to help my ds, he has to learn to live in the real world, go out to eat occasionally, etc. He has to learn to deal with it. so I have no problem with working with him and not mixing stuff as he really can't stand it, but getting a large plate and making more space to work with is my chosen tack. As he is getting older now and wants bigger portions, naturally there is less room between things on the plate hence he looks less different and this will help him as he gets older.

wrt food suggestions, I got ds involved in cooking. If he puts them together in a curry himself it's fine .... just don't put it on top of the rice
anything meat, potato, veg is fine, his fave is roast dinner. he had a mahoosive hissy fit at lasagne my mum made last week, obv a step too far. however, we manage a lot of pasta dishes, I have no clue how but they are ok pasta and sauce all end up in one pan to mix and because we all have it, it's fine. but then you have to have your garlic bread on a separate plate, obv [rollseyes]
we also make chicken and noodles, noodles go in a bowl on his dinner plate and chicken goes on the plate if necessary. noodles in soy sauce are ok apparently because it makes them taste nice.
I do agree it is about trying an assortmemt of stuff and try out anything you can think of. believe me it does get better as they get older. my aspie is 12, and now able to deal with far more textures than before. even mushrooms occasionally.

Have you tried a plate with dividers? My aunt used to keep a bundle of plates etc for GC and some of those were divided into three compartments, like this.

My friends son had divided picnic plates for food.

His averrsion was wet touching dry to the extent he would not eat wet food for a while. He had dry cereal with a glass of milk. Dry bread, sliced meat and cucumber (which had to be wiped between each slice) and he could just about construct his own sandwich. He was eventually won round with 'his' plate. Even dipping dry bread in ketchup.
If your sone would eat chicken drumsticks then tandoori may be the way to go with a chapati and yoghurt dip to tempt him to dip.

For "curry", you could marinade chicken in a home made tikka or satay marinade and control the spiciness. He also might like koftas, which are spicy meatballs - again, if you make them yourself, you can control the heat.

My DS has similar issues, and if he'll eat fish fingers and nuggets then the breadcrumbs are your friends. Make them the carrier drugs...

DS will now eat fishcakes, home-made crumbed chicken, and I'm trying him on croquettes this week. You can also get salmon fish fingers. The idea is to get him used to the new thing with the comfort of the orange crumb, then you take the crumbs away and give him the 'non-crumb' version of the food, eg salmon on its own. We are some way from that! But my objective this year was to have him eating a Christmas dinner that was the same as ours, and I've got there.

Thank you for all your replies! Sorry it's taken me so long to answer but we've had a rubbish few days. (That's a long story!)
Your posts have all been really helpful. He did have a separated plate but i gradually did away with this as there were only 3 sections and as he really enjoys veg, this made them even closer if we were have a selection on a sunday roast etc.
He is also a bit of a meat dodger, forgot to mention that in op! But i am definitely going to try the marinades as it may make the meat less dry, which my cooking doesn't help!
I think you all hit the nail on the head with start subtle. I think i could introduce a new flavour a week and see how he goes!
Thanks again everyone.