Soups were invented for cold winter days.

And what choices there are! There are cream soups and chowders. There are meaty and fishy soups. There are clear broth soups and soups heavy with meats and vegetables.

Every cook has a favorite family soup recipe, and often it is a vegetable-meat soup such as this one from Judy Langley. It is as easy to make as a soup can be without using one from a can. You will probably have almost everything you need on hand.

Her recipe was in a cookbook published by First Baptist Church of Hardeeville several years ago, where Rev. Jay E. Corder serves as pastor of the 364-member congregation. Hardeeville First Baptist is part of Savannah River Association, where Rev. Derris Davenport is serving as the interim director of missions.

While at Hardeeville First Baptist, Judy taught Sunday school, usually in the preschool and children’s classes, and served as hostess (i.e., the “kitchen lady”) for church functions.

Her husband, Bob Langley, died four years ago, and after a while she began attending Savannah Baptist Temple, an independent Baptist church pastored by Rev. Harold Porter.

Judy and her late husband had four children: Bob Jr., Paul and Brenda, who live in the Lowcountry; and Matthew, who lives in Phoenix. Judy works part-time and enjoys reading in her free time. A top pleasure is visiting her children.

Hearty soups may be made with meat such as chunks of beef, bacon, chicken, ham or oxtail. Today’s recipe is based on ground beef and a few vegetables. I will say that I played with the recipe a bit because I thought it too thick. Judy says if her soup needs more broth, she adds another bouillon cube and hot water, and I did the same because I thought there were too many solids and not enough liquid. Later, when I was reheating the soup I added tomato juice. My additions made a lot of soup, and after two meals and sharing some with our granddaughter Abbie, I had even more soup than when I started!

I really liked Judy’s simple recipe because it had few ingredients, was easy to make, and had a good taste — and because it is a basic recipe, adding other things was easy. Cornmeal muffins or Mexican cornbread would go well with this. Every kitchen needs a good soup recipe, and I think you will choose this one for yours.

Make Judy’s soup and serve as it is, or add your own touches, so that on a cold Sunday when you get home from church, you’ll have a steaming bowl for your … Sunday Dinner.

Hamburger Soup

1 ½ pounds lean ground beef
2-3 fresh carrots
2 large potatoes, peeled
½ medium onion
½ stalk celery
3 cubes beef bouillon
3 cups boiling water
1 12-oz. can stewed tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut carrots and celery into ¼-inch pieces. Dice onion and potatoes. Chop stewed tomatoes into small pieces.

Mix the bouillon with boiling water.

Brown the ground beef, then add all remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil; turn heat down to simmer. Cook until all vegetables are tender.

Yields 2 quarts or more.