JOE & THE JUICE Copycat Sandwich - Tunacado

 

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. 2 heap TBS of tuna salad

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

Ingredients for tuna salad:

1. 1 can of tuna in oil

2. 1 onion chopped

3. 1 stalk spring onion chopped

4. 1 tsp capers chopped

5. 1/2 lemon juice

6. 4 TBS creme fraiche 18% fat

7. Salt & pepper to taste

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 tuna salad:

1. In a bowl, add all the ingredients and mix well.

Directions for sandwich:

1. Press and toast 2 slices of bread using a panini machine into 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 tomatoes, tuna salad 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 have observed how the guys at Joe & The Juice make the sandwiches :-). We bought our panini maker from Netto for 169 DKK. It is value-for-money and works very well. There is no need to buy those expensive models. There is even a cheaper one from Føtex costing only 129 DKK, but we have no experience with it though.

At 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 the JOE & THE JUICE outlets all over the world. No wonder their sandwiches in Singapore are so much more expensive - 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 parmesan cheese, so we add it into our pesto, 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 for the bread :-(, but the store-bought wholewheat bread shown below comes close.

I use creme fraiche for the tuna instead of mayonnaise, as it is healthier. It actually tasted very good without the mayonnaise.

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. If you are making tunacado, you don't need the cheese and ham shown in the picture above.

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 an 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 :-)

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.

Here are the ingredients for the tuna salad: salt, pepper, tuna in oil, creme fraiche, capers, spring onion, lemon and onion.

In a bowl, add tuna, spring onions, onion and capers.

Add salt and pepper

Add 1/2 lemon juice

Add 4 tablespoons of creme fraiche

Mix well and it is done :-)

Start by grilling the sandwich bread. Place it diagonally on the panini maker

Press the bread completely down and lock it for a minute or two

Now the first pattern is done :-) 

Then turn the bread diagonally the other side to get the criss cross pattern

Press the bread completely down once again.

Now you get the criss cross pattern just like JOE & THE JUICE :-)

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

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 do 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 2 scoop of tuna salad and

Spread well. At this stage, the tunacado sandwich is completed :-)

But we like to add cucumber slices. 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.

Put the sandwich together and it is done :-)

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