Did I ruin my pea soup?

[shaunasever]

In a moment of trying to cook while balancing a screaming baby, I dumped a bag of dried peas into my stock without washing or sorting them. Ugh. Is the whole pot going to taste like dirt?

[Will Owen]

I never rinse dried legumes, just pick over them for foreign objects and bad beans. And I've never found any such in split peas or lentils, possibly just from luck. My advice would be to chew carefully...

[janniecooks]

The only risk you run is there might have been a small stone, branch or other woody plant material in with the peas. I always pick over and wash dried beans and lentils, and I'd say maybe once out of 50 or 100 bags have I found any foreign material. But then, it only takes one occasion where someone bites down hard on a tiny stone and breaks a tooth to make picking over dried beans a habit.

[KTinNYC]

I never sort or wash my beans or peas and they always come out fine.

[critter101]

Nope. While I generally put them in a strainer and run water through them, I've never had the rinse water look dirty.