Peas and Brown Rice Noodles

A while back, I was given a package of brown rice noodles. I tossed ideas around in my head for a while, and the one I kept coming back to? Peas. Sweet, green, summery peas. This time of  year, I get a hankering for certain veggies, especially corn, cucumbers, and peas. Why not? They’re in season, and just begging to be tossed around with pasta or other veggies or any of a gazillion other uses.

Once I decided to incorporate peas into the noodle dish, I just had to figure out how to go about it. Should I keep it simple, with just some lemon juice and parsley? Should I jazz it up a bit with exotic ingredients? I decided on a middle ground: it’s not as simple as it could be, but not too exotic, either.

I had just made my Mediterranean salad, and you can see how the flavors there influenced this dish, especially in the sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese. But the focus here is still on the peas and noodles–they are, after all, the stars of this show. And notice that I made this with canned peas, just to make sure that it could be done. (Though, obviously, it’d be tastier with fresh!)

The feta is completely optional; it’s in the photos, but trust me, this dish is just as fantastic without it. With it, without it; with fresh or canned or frozen peas…this is a great, simple, and gluten-free summer dish.