Hot Banana Peppers and Tomatoes

I love summer because the farmers market or my garden is full of hot banana peppers and my family loves hot pepper sandwiches!  My mom made these weekly in the summer!  She used to fry hers in a ton of vegetable oil and yes they were delicious. Now that I don't consume oil I had to find a way to make these just as delicious as her or at least come close. Made them this week and the kids didn't even notice that there was no oil!  The key is to get them soft and even a little brown.  Here is how I did it. 

1 cup of veggie broth (carton or homemade)

1 bunch of yellow hot banana peppers. Tops cut off and sliced lengthwise. Seeds in or out your choice. Seeds in are hotter and wear gloves! You can mix in some sweet bell peppers too. I usually do to cut down on the hotness. This time I used about 10 banana peppers and 1 large red bell 

2 large fresh garden tomatoes chopped

Salt and pepper ... About a teaspoon of salt... Black pepper to taste or leave it out ... Both are optional 

In a large skillet put ½ cup of the veggie broth and all of the peppers salt and pepper over medium heat stirring often cooking  until the broth is gone and they are starting to stick and brown.  Add another ¼ cup of broth and the chopped tomatoes stir scrapping he bottom and then cover for about 5 minutes. Stir again. The tomatoes should be giving off juice.  Keep stirring / covering / adding broth until every thing is soft and the tomatoes are broken down. This can take up to 30 minutes. You don't want a dry end product but most of the liquid should be gone and the tomato juice thickened. If liquid is evaporating too fast lower the heat all the way and add more broth or water.  You may have to play with the heat setting to get the results ...you want to fry without oil but you do need to steam them a bit with he lid on so they do not burn.

We love to eat them on Italian bread open faced!  They are great to add to pizza or steak sandwiches!  I just eat them right out of the bowl. But have your favorite cold beverage on hand as they can be HOT!  Yum!

Enjoy and stay compassionate!