JOE & THE JUICE Copycat Sandwich

The secret to making a close copy of JOE & THE JUICE sandwich lies in the homemade pesto (see recipe below), grilling the bread into an ultra thin "flat bread" BEFORE putting the sandwich together - trust me, you will need a panini maker; and slicing the avocado real thin as if you are spreading "butter" on the bread.

Ingredients:

1. 4 slices of avocado 

2. 6 slices of tomatoes

3. 6 slices of mozzarella cheese

4. a handful of rucola leaves (optional)

5. 2 slices of whole-wheat bread (Javisst fuldkornsklemmer)

6. 1 TBS of homemade basil pesto

7. 1 slice of Serrano ham, salmon or chicken as desired

Ingredients for vegan pesto:

1. A handful of fresh parsley (I use the whole plant shown in the picture below)

2. A handful of fresh basil leaves

3. 1 dried date pitted

4. 30g nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, almonds and/or sunflower seeds)

5. 1/2 lemon juice

6. 1 clove garlic

7. 100ml extra virgin olive oil

8. Dash of salt and ground black pepper

Directions for pesto:

1. Blend all the ingredients until smooth in a food processor or blender. Adjust with more or less olive oil as desired.

Directions for sandwich:

1. Press and toast 2 slices of bread using a panini machine into something resembling flat bread.

2. Spread pesto on each side of each slice of bread.

3. Add 4 thin slices of avocado on one side of the bread.

4. On the other side of the bread, add mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and rucola leaves.

5. Put the sandwich together and it's all done :-)

Additional Information:

The Danes have a winning way of making healthy - wholewheat, no butter, delicious and nutritious sandwiches - way ahead of the rest of the world based on my bias opinion (we live in Denmark). It's popular all around the world, and boy are they expensive in Singapore!!! 

Daddy FECS and Our Little FECS’ absolutely love JOE & THE JUICE sandwiches. So they have been requesting me to research the recipe (see links below), but alas, I didn't find any that come close to the taste after trying the recipes from the internet. Thus, I decided to experiment on my own. 

The secret to JOE & THE JUICE sandwich lies in the homemade pesto (it wouldn’t work with store-bought pesto), real thin avocado slices and the grilled flat bread. This is achieved by grilling the bread on the panini maker before putting the other ingredients into sandwich (I observed how the guys make the sandwiches in the store :-). We bought our panini maker from Netto for 169 DKK. It is value-for-money and works very well. No need to buy those expensive ones. There is even a cheaper one from Føtex costing only 129 DKK, but we have no experience with that though.

A JOE & THE JUICE sandwich costs 60 DKK for a sandwich. If you make it yourself, it roughly costs 19 DKK for one sandwich:

1. 1 sandwich bread 4 DKK

2. 4 slices of avocado approx. 1/4 of an avocado 2.5 DKK

3. 1/2 Mozzarella cheese 3.5 DKK

4. 8 slices of tomato 1 DKK

5. 1/2 Serrano ham 3 DKK

6. Homemade pesto 5 DKK

I tried to make a JOE & THE JUICE copycat sandwich for our canoe trip on Sunday. At least Daddy FECS gave the thumbs up for my imitation product. He said he couldn’t tell any difference😂 Aaawww... what a darling... he never has any complaints and always easy to please :-). With such encouragements, I can surely toil in the kitchen all day... while they canoe leisurely at the lakes and enjoy the sandwiches❤️

Update 1 May 2021:

Today during our yearly spring picnic with friends, we found out from Daddy FECS' childhood friend who is a board member of the JOE & THE JUICE that the secret to the sandwiches is the freshly made pesto every morning and the special whole-wheat bread delivered by Kohberg. They don't use butter at all! And they only use their own bread which is exported to JOE & THE JUICE outlets all over the world. No wonder their sandwiches in Singapore is so much more expensive!!! They are imported all the way from Denmark. And no I didn't manage to get the recipe for the bread from our friend :-(

If you notice, JOE & THE JUICE's pesto tastes kinda sweet. Thus, I add a dried date into my pesto to achieve that sweetness. And JOE & THE JUICE uses vegan pesto - no parmesan cheese, but we like to add parmesan cheese in our pesto as J loves it, although you can leave it out of course.

We like to add slices of cucumber and rucola salad leaves into our sandwiches too, although JOE & THE JUICE does not do that.

The only thing I could not replicate myself is their secret recipe bread :-(, but the store-bought wholewheat bread shown below comes close.

Storage:

You can store the homemade pesto in an air-tight jar and refrigerate it. it keeps for 5 days. You can also freeze them in portion using ice-cube tray and just thaw a portion, when you need it.

References:

https://thecopenhagentales.com/2015/08/12/copycat-joe-the-juice-tunacado-sandwich/

https://frederikkewaerens.dk/tunacado-ala-joe-the-juice/

https://letsblogsomeshit.dk/lav-dine-egne-joe-the-juice-sandwich-juice/

Videos I found from Youtube:

https://youtu.be/m7O4XW2GdK0

https://youtu.be/54tQCtqu10E

https://youtu.be/Ay2BsdgqzRE

All the ingredients you need for the pesto and sandwich are here. Apology, I missed out 1/2 a lemon.

Use a panini maker. This is the one we bought from Netto for 169 DKK. It's a basic no frill model. There isn't a on/off switch, but it is doing a good job of grilling the sandwich :-)

For the bread, I use wholewheat Javisst Fuldkornsklemmer, which you can also get from Netto or Føtex. It comes close to JOE & THE JUICE's :-)

This is the Mozzarella cheese we use.

This is how the mozzarella cheese looks like after unpacking.

To make a batch of pesto, add all the ingredients (Basically a handful of basil, a handful of pine nuts or desired nuts - here I use what I have at home, which are almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds; 100ml of olive oil, a dried date pitted, parmesan cheese 30-40g, half lemon squeezed, salt and pepper to taste) into a food processor or blender. here I am using the KitchenAid mini food processor. By the way, I think JOE & THE JUICE uses pine nuts. Full recipe here: 

https://www.familyfecs.com/2021/04/basil-pesto.html

Blend until smooth in a food processor or blender.

Pesto done :-) 

To store, transfer into air-tight jar and refrigerate. Can keep for 5 days.

Start by grilling the sandwich bread.

Press the bread completely down and

Lock it if you have a lock function with your panini maker.

If not, just hold down the handle to completely flatten the bread for a minute or so.

Look how lovely flat the bread has become, just like JOE & THE JUICE's :-)

One more shot of the grilled flat bread from the other day :-)

Slice it into half with a knife horizontally as shown above while it is still warm, otherwise it will be impossible to slice it after it is cooled down (that's more or less how JOE & THE JUICE's staff does it as well)

Spread on homemade pesto...

...on both sides of the bread.

Using a butter knife, slice avocado into thin slices and spread them on one side of the bread.

On the other side of the bread, add slices of tomato.

Add mozzarella cheese

Sprinkle a dash of salt on the chcese.

Sprinkle a dash of pepper on the cheese.

At this sage, the avocado sandwich is completed :-)

Add cucumber (optional), JOE & THE JUICE does not add cucumber, but we like them in our sandwiches.

Add rucola salad leaves (optional), again JOE & THE JUICE does not add cucumber, but we like them in our sandwiches.

Add Serrano ham (Available from Netto). Picture from a previous sandwich making session :-)

Put the sandwich together and it is done :-)

Wrap it up with sandwich paper and you are good to go :-)

You can now eat it, or you can lightly grill the sandwich down again to warm the bread. 

Just lightly press the sandwich down, but don't flatten it further in the panini maker. This step is optional, JOE & THE JUICE does not do that.

Now it is done :-)

Use a wooden spatula to take the sandwich out so that you won't scratch the iron grill plate.

Here is our copy-cate JOE & THE JUICE sandwich hot out from the grill :-)

I wrap it up with aluminum foil for J's lunch box in the morning to bring it to school.

You can pair it with a homemade green smoothie :-)

11 March 2022 (5Y10M25D): Baby FECS finished the whole sandwich for breakfast today :-)