Pinto Bean Question

[Kingwell]

I am making bean soup with half black-eyed peas and half pinto beans.
It has a very unappealing grayish brown color...is this normal? I'm sure it won't affect the flavor, but it isn't very pretty!

I haven't really cooked with pintos before I guess. Now that I think about it, the ones at Mexican restaurants (charro beans...I'm guessing those are pintos) are kinda the same color, but thought I'd get others' input.

[brownie12]

When you cook pinto beans, they have an attractive light brown color. When you cook black eyed peas, the broth tends to be a little dark, maybe tending to gray, so I'm guessing that the pintos picked up the color from the black eyed peas. I've never cooked them together, though, so I'm just guessing. Anyone else?

[heavy hedonist]

I'd say you assessed it perfectly-- if you want to get a better color next time, cook the black-eyes separately, but for now, maybe add some black bean, like a can of them, to get the color more even/acceptable/ or beet leaves share their color liberally. I don't know, this batch is probably never going to be lovely to look at.
eat in the dark.

[Hammster]

Maybe some chopped cilantro or parsley (if you don't like cilantro) and/or chopped scallions sprinkled over the soup will help disguise the brownish color with a nice fresh green look. :D

[Kingwell]

Thanks all. Maybe next time I'll take the super-easy route and use canned.
The soup I'm trying to replicate has a clear chickeny-yellowy broth. What is currently in my fridge is nowhere near that! :(