Turkey & Cheese Sandwich in Dubai: Ciabatta and Beetroot Slaw

A turkey and cheese sandwich delivered in the morning and eaten at lunch spends the hours in between in a bag or an office fridge. Whether it is still good when you unwrap it depends mostly on where the water goes.

In a sandwich with salad, the water sits in the filling and the bread is the dry side. Beetroot slaw, lettuce and arugula hold most of it, so the hours before lunch are a slow transfer from the filling into the crumb, and pressure in a bag and Dubai heat both speed it up. Our Ciabatta Turkey & Cheese Sandwich has all three inside, with tender turkey and cheese, in a rustic ciabatta made fresh every day, and it is 12 AED. Here is how it copes with the wait, and how to help it.

Tender turkey, and why lean meat suits a cold wait

Our focaccia and white-bread turkey sandwiches are made with smoked turkey, and our guide to sandwiches in Dubai compares all six by their bread. This one is described simply as tender turkey, and its character comes from the cheese and the beetroot slaw instead.

Turkey is generally a lean meat, which suits a sandwich that may spend the morning in a fridge. Cold sets fat firm and waxy, so a fatty meat can taste heavy straight from the fridge, and lean turkey has little fat to set.

What the ciabatta does in a bag

A ciabatta crust is thin but chewy. It takes the weight of a bag and the grip of a hand, and because it is drier and denser than the crumb, it slows moisture coming in from outside, though a sealed bag will soften it too.

Ciabatta is traditionally a lean dough, with little or none of the butter, milk and sugar that make enriched breads tender. A lean, chewy crumb springs back from a squash better than a tender enriched one, though no bread fully recovers once it has gone damp. Lay the sandwich flat and keep heavy things off it.

Inside, ciabatta's crumb is more open and irregular than a soft sandwich loaf's, so juice spreads through it more slowly. That structure is why this and our focaccia sandwich are the two we suggest when lunch is still hours away, as long as both are kept cold. How a ciabatta gets its structure, from a very wet dough, gentle folds rather than heavy kneading and a hot bake with steam, is covered in our piece on sourdough ciabatta.

Handling the beetroot slaw

Beetroot brings an earthy sweetness and a fine crunch against the turkey and cheese. It is also the filling most likely to release juice into the bread, because shredding has opened its cells.

Wherever salt or dressing touches those cut surfaces, osmosis draws more liquid out. Cold slows that release and keeps the arugula and lettuce crisp, where warmth wilts them.

The other fillings change how quickly the juice reaches the bread. Cheese is rich in fat, which does not mix with water, so wherever a slice lies between slaw and bread it slows the juice down. Lettuce leaves shed liquid rather than absorbing it, and do the same job. Where the slaw rests directly on the bread, that face of the crumb takes the juice first.

Beetroot's deep red comes from betalain pigments, which dissolve in water, so the colour travels with the juice and shows in the crumb nearest the slaw. The crust, which the juice reaches last, keeps its chew longest.

Beetroot slaw also goes into our Brioche Smoked Chicken Sandwich, where soft brioche gives the sandwich a much shorter window, as we explain in our smoked chicken sandwich article.

How to keep a turkey and cheese sandwich for a desk lunch or a drive

Someone needs to be there to take the delivery in, because we cannot replace fresh items left uncollected or unrefrigerated. Once it arrives:

• Into the fridge straight away, unless you are eating it now. Turkey and cheese are perishable, and standard food-safety guidance is no more than two hours out of the fridge in total, or one hour above 32°C. The time it spent on the way to you, or waiting at reception, counts. The cold firms the bread a little, but with meat and cheese inside, safety comes first.
• Keep it wrapped. Every cut face is crumb exposed to air and filling, so if you are cutting it yourself, do it when you sit down to eat.
• If you rewrap it, use paper rather than cling film. Paper lets a little moisture escape. Cling film traps it against the crust, which turns leathery.
• Out of the fridge ten to fifteen minutes before eating. Cold firms the crumb and the cheese and mutes aroma, and a short rest brings the flavour back.

For a drive, use an insulated bag with an ice pack and keep the sandwich in its wrap, so condensation lands on that rather than the crust. Never leave it in a parked car, which gets far hotter inside than the air outside.

The wider rules for keeping bread and sandwiches are in how to store bread in Dubai. Ordering several for a team? Our guide to office breakfast catering covers the planning.

When to eat it

Eat it the day it arrives. Kept cold, it suits the gap between a morning delivery and lunch: the crust still has its chew and the leaves keep some snap by then. By the next morning the slaw will have given much of its juice to the crumb, and nothing brings that back.

Do not heat it, because the leaves and slaw wilt quickly. If you like your ciabatta warm, our Sourdough Ciabatta loaf at 14 AED presses well in a dry pan.

For a meeting, or when you want olives and rosemary rather than cheese and slaw, the Focaccia Smoked Turkey Sandwich at 17 AED is the other sandwich that holds until lunch if kept cold, and our focaccia sandwich guide explains what its oil and toppings do. The White Bread Smoked Turkey Sandwich, at 12 AED like this one, is the softer, simpler choice and one to eat soon after it arrives rather than keep until lunch.

Frequently Asked Questions

What comes in the Ciabatta Turkey & Cheese Sandwich?

Its main fillings are tender turkey, cheese, beetroot slaw, crisp lettuce and fresh arugula in a rustic ciabatta, made fresh every day, and it is 12 AED. Keep it in the fridge and eat it cool rather than heated, after ten to fifteen minutes out of the fridge.

Can you freeze a turkey sandwich?

Not one with salad in it. Freezing forms ice crystals that burst the cells in lettuce, arugula and beetroot slaw, so they thaw limp and watery and soak the bread. Ciabatta on its own freezes well, so for later in the week, freeze a Sourdough Ciabatta loaf on the day it arrives and fill it fresh.

Why does the bread turn pink next to the beetroot slaw?

The slaw's juice carries beetroot's water-soluble colour into whatever it soaks, so the pink patch is a map of where moisture has moved. Those parts of the crumb soften first, and the patch grows the longer the sandwich waits or the warmer it gets. Kept cold and eaten the day it arrives, it stays small, and slices of cheese or lettuce between slaw and bread hold it back.

Is beetroot slaw the same as coleslaw?

Not quite. Slaw is a salad of shredded vegetables, and the word comes from the Dutch koolsla, meaning cabbage salad. Coleslaw is traditionally built on cabbage, while a beetroot slaw puts shredded beetroot at its centre, which is where the earthy sweetness and the deep red juice in this sandwich come from. The product page names the slaw but not what dresses it.

Does the ciabatta turkey sandwich contain allergens?

The Ciabatta Turkey & Cheese Sandwich contains wheat (gluten) in the ciabatta and dairy in the cheese, and it may contain other allergens: the product page lists the main fillings, not every ingredient in the bread, turkey, slaw or any spread. Our kitchen handles wheat, gluten, eggs, dairy, nuts, peanuts, soy, sesame and seeds, and we cannot guarantee that any item is free from traces of these. If you have an allergy or intolerance, do not rely on the website description alone; ask us through our contact page before you order, and we will tell you honestly whether we can serve you safely.

A sandwich for tomorrow's desk lunch

There is no same-day delivery, so order the Ciabatta Turkey & Cheese Sandwich ahead and choose a morning window at checkout; our fresh bread delivery guide explains the windows. The rest of what we bake is in the shop, and if you have an allergy, ask us before you order.