Uh oh, a realization too late? Washing stuff...

[New_Natural_Mom]

I just realized I have been making stuff - ground flour, beans, etc without washing them first. I just grind them up, let them soak, then cook as necessary. Should I be washing stuff first, especially the beans?

I am making a on-the-fly mung bean fritter (soaking now) for dinner. This is my very first intro to mung beans. (Can I just say, it smells, uhh, gross.) I ground up some mung beans, yogurt, water, tumeric, garlic, and paprika. I am letting it soak and tonight I am going to fry it into patties after adding a little honey to help mask the smell.

Should I have washed the mung beans first? They were organic and ordered in bulk from Bread Beckers. I hope I don't have to scrap it and start over. I wash everything else before using, so not sure why I didn't think to for the grains/legumes.

[sunnysandiegan]

I don't really KNOW the answer, but i would be unlikely to scrap the meal at this point. A little dirt will build your immune system. I do usually rinse my beans in cold water as I sort them, but I doubt we rinse grains before cooking them. I've never thought about rinsing grains before, even though we buy them in bulk. I guess because we cook them in water??? I read about rinsing and sorting dry beans, so I learned to do it that way. I used to rinse canned beans, too, when we used those, but that was to remove some of the sodium and liquid they came packed in. The smell used to bother me and rinsing solved it.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

Honestly? I've never washed either. I don't worry about it if they're organic.

[New_Natural_Mom]

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan

I don't really KNOW the answer, but i would be unlikely to scrap the meal at this point. A little dirt will build your immune system. I do usually rinse my beans in cold water as I sort them, but I doubt we rinse grains before cooking them. I've never thought about rinsing grains before, even though we buy them in bulk. I guess because we cook them in water??? I read about rinsing and sorting dry beans, so I learned to do it that way. I used to rinse canned beans, too, when we used those, but that was to remove some of the sodium and liquid they came packed in. The smell used to bother me and rinsing solved it.

What/why rise and sort beans? I just scooped them out and threw them in the vitamix....is that why they smell....beany?

[Krisis]

You think that's bad, I didn't know you were supposed to wash fruits and veggies till a couple of months ago.

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by New_Natural_Mom

What/why rise and sort beans? I just scooped them out and threw them in the vitamix....is that why they smell....beany?

I was just reading somewhere on how to cook dry beans and the instructions/recipe said to sort and rinse the beans before soaking, so I did it. I found tiny rocks that first time, so I have done it ever since. I haven't found any since then, though. And the rinse water was filthy that time, too!

[motherbirth]

I have found it depends a lot on the source of your beans. If you buy them from an Indian grocery, for example, they tend to have a lot of rocks and are dirty. If you buy them in bulk from the health food store, they tend to be cleaner.

It's best to do it, but I wouldn't stress about your organic mung beans.

But I always drain and rinse off the soak water. It gets rid of the junk that you have been soaking off.

[tanyalynn]

When rinsing legumes, I have sometimes seen a lot of dirt come off. I was surprised.

I'd expect that the processor of whole grains would expect at least some of their customers to grind the grains and rinsing beforehand seems odd (I wouldn't think damp grains would grind properly, and drying thoroughly would be time-consuming).

[mamadelbosque]

I sort/rinse eans and find rocks and moldy beans fairly frequently which makes me keep doing it... most of my beans & grains I buy in big bulk bags through my co-op. Grains I don't sort or rinse cause' I don't think they'd grind properly if I did and drying would take forever, and I am SO not a good enough planner to account for that time - when I need flour I tend to need it NOW not in 8 or 12 or 24 hours That said, I do have 50#s of hard white wheat that I bought locally that I don't know wtf I'm going to do with cause its so dirty looking, and I feel like I'd HAVE to sort and rinse and dry it and I just don't have the time... Most likely it'll get fed to the chickens or ducks or goats eventually.