This slow soup tastes so delicious that a man eats it every day

Having lunch
This slow soup is so delicious that a nurse eats it every day at work for 17 years.

Most need variety in their diet. Not so Reid Branson. The nurse employed in Seattle, USA, shot herself on slow soup during weekdays. And that for 17 years. The Washington Post tracked him down and asked about his routine and recipe.

Branson’s daily work is unpredictable. He works as a nurse in an HIV clinic at Seattle hospital. Because of the coronary virus, he has even more to do than usual. But there is one thing he can always rely on: the Greek soup of lentils and spinach. It is kind-hearted with lentils as a base and potatoes and pumpkin as an accompaniment. The soup is seasoned with all sorts of aromatic spices and fresh lemon juice. He cooks them every Saturday for almost two decades – and stuffs them into four pots. Enough for eight lunches. If anything remains, the 63-year-old is happy to share the soup with his wife.

It all started when the recipe for his favorite canned soup was changed. He just didn’t like the new recipe anymore. So he went looking for an alternative. And found a recipe for lentil soup in Crescent Dragonwagon’s Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread cookbook, which was published in 1992.

This soup always tastes different

Branson still hasn’t had enough of the soup because it always tastes different, he tells the Washington Post. “It’s always a little surprising: the onion came out strong this time, or that’s a really good pumpkin. If I hadn’t done it so often, I would never have noticed.”

But all good things finally come to an end – even the traditional Branson lunch. He will retire soon. The nurse still has less than four months to work. Then he will probably stop cooking his soup. But for the outing party he wants to cook it again. Then so much that all his colleagues can try.

Here is the recipe for the soup.

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