Soba Salad with Queso Fresco and Peas

What is queso fresco, you ask? And why is the Mexican sounding cheese being served with Asian noodles? Queso fresco is the cheese of choice in Duke's House. We are on a mission to pinch pennies in any way possible to save for a great mountain climbing expedition later this year. Queso fresco is the most economical, versatile cheese that Chris and I have happened on so far. At $2.86 for 12 ounces, it can't be beat. Queso fresco is the only cheese on our grocery list, so I expect that it will make frequent showings here.

After buying Soba noodles on a whim last week, it became my mission to find something good to do with them. I scoured all of my go-to cooking blogs and recipe websites and finally found something that struck my fancy. Perhaps it is due to her great photography or possibly due to my nearly flawless track record with her cooking I selected this recipe from The Way the Cookie Crumbles to base my cooking endeavor on.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces soba noodles
• 10 ounces frozen peas
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp honey
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp black pepper
• 6 ounces queso fresco, crumbled
• 4 scallions, chopped

Directions:

• Cook noodles and peas together until noodles are tender.
• While noodles and peas are cooking, mix together olive oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, honey, salt, and black pepper in a sealable container (you will toss the noodles and peas in it later).
• Crumble queso fresco and chop scallions, these will be used as a garnish.
• When the noodles and peas are finished cooking, drain and then add to the sauce mixture.
• Toss noodles and sauce.
• Garnish each serving with queso fresco and scallions.

Servings ~ 8
Calories ~ 278, Carbohydrates ~ 39 g, Fat ~ 10 g, Protein ~ 11 g