A bowl of Turkish lentil soup can do a lot with very little. Red lentils, onion, carrot, broth, lemon, and a few warm spices turn into something silky, filling, and deeply comforting in under an hour.

A good soup can do more than warm your hands around the bowl. Across cultures, cooks have long built soups around ginger, garlic, turmeric, chiles, herbs, legumes, fish, and vegetables, many of the same ingredients now associated with anti-inflammatory eating.