Ahhh, beans you got to love them

How necessary is it to soak, drain and rinse beans?

Many think the main reason to soak beans is to minimize gas producing music, you know what I mean! While it's true that soaking, draining and rinsing does help to remove the indigestible complex sugars from the outer coating of the beans, it's certainly not the primary reason to soak.

Probably the most important reason for soaking is that it allows shorter cooking times and that preserves the most nutrition's, so you get the benefits of all the proteins, vitamins and minerals in the beans.

Still not sure? Beans are dirty! Discard the dirty water!

Beans go through a series of threshing and sifting processes, but none of these steps include washing because any moisture could cause the beans to mold or start sprouting. So lets be clear, soaking the beans is the only way to clean them and remove the accumulated surface dirt, and nasty stuff like insect larva, rodent contamination, and any fertilizer or pesticide residues that might be present -- what the industry politely calls 'field dust' -- none of which you'd likely want to eat.