<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Thanks so much to everyone who responded!  This may
have been common knowledge to many of you, but I was
never taught anything about cooking and have been
petrified and scrambling to learn since being
diagnosed with celiac (I didn't even know what a
colander was until a couple of months ago!) It was so
great to get instructions with specific techniques
people use to "clean" these foods.  Thanks again for
all your support!!

Here's the summary:
===================
I got 6 replies and all of them said whole dry foods
that are naturally gluten free (such as beans,
lentils, and split peas) are fine as long as you pick
out any stray matter and rinse in water (any
temperature) prior to cooking.  Two people said
specifically not to use any vegetable wash or soap.

Here are the details:
=====================
"I rinse in tepid water - running the water into the
pot with the rice or lentils or beans(after I first
manually check the lentils for grains, occasionally
finding 2-4 wheat or barley-looking seed grains
in each cup of lentils, although rarely in other
beans) and then draining through a colander and
cooking with fresh water."

"I simply put dried beans and split peas in a colander
and rinse with cold water using the spray attachment
on my sink.  Then I get on with either doing an
overnight soak of the beans in cold water and cooking
them the
next day (after discarding the soak water and rinsing
them again)"

"I have always rinsed dried beans, lentils, etc in a
colander.  I then pick and sort through very
carefully.  Sometimes there are even pebbles included.
That could do some real tooth damage! Just rinse two
or three times and put them a handful at a time into
the cooking pot."

"Just rinse them.  Water temp doesn't matter.  I
wouldn't use any "vegetable wash" stuff, as then you'd
have to keep rinsing the beans to remove THAT!. "

"Remove any grains that aren't peas, etc..  Barley is
commonly used in bean soup mixes and would be about
the only one you would find.  (If you don't know what
barley looks like, go the a store that sells grains in
bulk and check it out.) These products are harvested
as dry seeds and are processed dry.  Anything that is
the same size as the peas, etc. will get through the
sorters. Small stones are not uncommon.   As natural
products, they will contain durt & dirt from the field
that needs to be removed.  Sorting to remove any
debris and damaged pieces--off color, bug holes, need
to be done while dry.  Then put in a colander and
rinse under running water while stirring w/ your
hands."

"If you're buying the beans, lentils, split peas in
bulk, measure them out, and pour the dry measured
beans onto a towel. Roll them around and pick out any
large pieces of dirt, stones, etc. This step is far
less necessary than it used to be.
After picking out the large debris, put the beans in a
large, fine mesh strainer. Run water (any temperature
you can stand to put your hand in) through them,
moving them around in the strainer with your hand
until
the water runs clean and they've all been rinsed.
Alternatively, set the strainer in a big bowl and fill
with water. Swish them around with your
hand, lift the strainer out of the bowl. Discard the
water. Do this a couple of times, until the water
comes out clean.
You can't scrub beans, and you'll be very unhappy if
you try to wash them with soap (it's _really_ hard to
get out). I personally wouldn't let any of
those new "vegetable washes" anywhere near something I
intend to eat--I wash my fruit & vegetables to remove
chemicals and pesticides, not to add them.
Remember--the cross-contamination being discussed here
is the rather remote possiblity of a small amount of
flour dust on the beans. It can't soak in, it doesn't
release gluten into the beans, it isn't dirty or
infectious, and can't be neutralized with soap or
killed with disinfectants. Just rinse your beans and
cook them."





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