Mom and I started our 2022 weekly food adventure this weekend, with Turkish lentil soup. When traveling throughout Turkey, 10 years ago, we tried many new dishes: borek, ayron, vegetable mezzas, lamuhcan, Kuzu tandır (roasted lamb), and raki. There was one familiar dish consistently present on every menu, a cozy small bowl of Turkish lentil soup. It is a staple in much of the Middle East, and certainly in Turkey. Rare is the restaurant, small or big, which doesn’t offer a bowl of lentil soup on its menu.

Turkish lentil soup is generally super-smooth and brothy, it’s lightly seasoned with just a few simple spices, and it’s served up with fresh mint or parsley and lemon wedges, plus an occasional sprinkle sumac or Aleppo pepper. We went with a sumac. It was usually served as an appetizer, often with some freshly-baked lavash on the side. And it was always so lovely and delicious.

There are a variety of ways to make the soup, but the color often gives away the cook’s preferred method. Some are yellow, indicating potatoes and carrots may have been added, but not tomato. Others are a more orangey-red, suggesting tomato paste and, perhaps, red pepper paste have been involved.

Turns out, it’s incredibly simple to make in less than 40 minutes, It’s nice and healthy, which we especially appreciate this time of year. Today’s soup was served with just a half sandwich and naan, since we didn’t have any lavash. In mom’s opinion, the freshly squeezed lemon toppings is essential. I used a modified version of this recipe from the New York Times. We didn’t think we were going to find Aleppo pepper, but mom got lucky at the Giant looking for a replacement and happen to run across it.