Maha’s Lentil Soup

My sister-in-law, Maha Tawil-Copps, is a great cook and comes from a family of great cooks, including her mother, three sisters, and sister-in-law Gemma. Every meal she’s ever prepared for me, mostly traditional foods from her native Syria, is a feast for the senses. She’s an instinctive cook and an artist by training. “I’ve tried to follow recipes, but I just can’t,” she says. “I cook by balance, not measuring cups.” This lentil soup — a traditional dish from Syria and Lebanon — is one of the simpler acts from her amazing repertoire. Maha once tried using spinach as a substitute for the Swiss chard but vows, “Never again — it was terrible,” although she admits that my mom and Aunt Ginny loved it. One more thing — and this is important: “Squeeze the lemons over the soup only after you’ve ladled it into the bowl. If the juice sits in the soup too long, or you reheat it, it ruins everything.”