A bowl filled with hot homemade soup can be a tonic for a tired soul, warming the heart as much as the body. Just a spoonful of steaming chicken noodle or fragrant tomato basil holds the power to conjure up tender memories of Dad’s or Grandma’s version of the ultimate comfort food.

Such are the elixirs ladled out at Soup Star. The cozy eatery, tucked into a vintage strip mall off Cerrillos Road (where the vegan Plant Base Cafe used to be), was opened in 2023 by the husband-and-wife team Miqueas Celote and Anita Salazar. He’s the wiz in the kitchen, concocting new recipes based on flights of fancy and whatever’s in the fridge, and she oversees everything else with an expert eye.

“People come in here and say that it feels so much like a home to them,” Salazar tells me as we talk in the restaurant’s sweet dining room, where four standard tables and three high-tops are decorated with vases of fresh flowers. A homey hodgepodge of colorful landscape and floral paintings hangs on every wall. “They’ll ask me, ‛Was this once a house?’ They’ll talk to other diners. They feel like they’re at my house for lunch. It’s a different kind of feeling for a restaurant.”

Celote agrees. “Young people say, ‛It looks like my grandparents’ house,” he says, smiling as if to ask, Could there be a more perfect setting for homemade soup? A few of his irresistible concoctions include Italian wedding soup with tiny hand-rolled meatballs, green chile corn chowder with just the right heat, and Frito pie soup. “It’s like an upside-down Frito pie,” Salazar says. “We use hickory-smoked bison sausage from Beck and Bulow.”

Though Salazar and Celote have ample experience working in the local dining scene, this is the first restaurant they’ve owned. They met in 2000 at Plaza Cafe Southside. He was a line cook and she was waiting tables. Through the years, they’ve worked in various Santa Fe restaurants. Salazar’s résumé includes stints at Dr. Field Goods, The Ranch House, and Second Street Brewery’s Rufina Taproom. Celote’s background includes working in kitchens from the Anasazi Restaurant to the erstwhile Saveur. Initially, their daughter also pitched in, painting walls, then waiting tables until she was tapped to run the family’s newly opened vintage shop, Thrift Stars, located right next door.

While soup is the star, Soup Star branches beyond cups and bowls to offer salads and sandwiches. The Souper Star Grilled Cheese Combo layers melty Gruyère with Italian salami, capocollo, and prosciutto, as well as arugula and apples, all piled between sourdough slices and grilled. It’s a perfect match for a cup of tomato basil soup. The Empanada & Soup Combo features an empanada stuffed with chicken tinga or calabacitas alongside your choice of soup—I’d go with the smooth butternut squash garnished with pepitas. Other combo options include an Open Faced Corned Beef Reuben and a decadent Green Chile Philly Steak Sandwich, served with a cup of onion au jus, that will put a big dent in your appetite. Salads include mixed greens topped with sauteed veggies and a classic cobb; there’s also the Backstreet Salad Filled Pita, available as a half or whole.

Can’t decide between soups? Order a flight, an ingenious offering of three four-ounce servings of your choice. It’s a great way to familiarize yourself with Soup Star’s repertoire, be it chowder, stew, bisque, or goulash.

No matter how many incredible iterations of soup make their way onto Soup Star’s menu, one soup forever holds the rank of superstar and that’s Hungarian mushroom. The luscious fusion of toothsome mushrooms with a sour cream–based broth is brightened by the sweet, red peppery notes of Hungarian paprika and the anise-like flavors of dill.

This soup first took Santa Fe by storm when Back Street Bistro’s owner and chef David Jacoby put it on his menu in the early 1990s. “That soup is loved by everybody who ever has it,” says Jacoby, who retired and closed Back Street in 2017. “It has that je ne sais quoi. It’s just absolutely delicious.”

Salazar had worked at Back Street as a server for nearly a decade and witnessed how this savory soup kept customers coming back. Before opening Soup Star, she reached out to Jacoby and, with his blessing, added it to Soup’s Star menu, albeit with a little less sour cream. “People say the Hungarian mushroom soup is the best soup they’ve ever had in their entire lives,” she says. “I think it’s the aroma, and Miqueas uses lots of mushrooms. It’s the most popular soup here.” Jacoby, who stops in for soup, is happy to see it on the menu. “Soup Star carries on the legacy,” he says.

You might think that the recipe for such a talked-about soup was created by alchemy or is kept locked in a vault. Instead, it’s long been available in Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook, published in 1977. With recipes from the vegetarian Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York, the hugely influential publication grew out of a self-published, spiral-bound collection of handwritten recipes, and has been reissued several times.

Not surprisingly, Salazar’s passion for soup dates back to her days at Back Street Bistro. “David’s platinum-roasted garlic potato leek soup is what made me love soup,” Salazar says. “That’s what made me miss Back Street the most when it closed.”

Hungarian mushroom may be Soup Star’s bestseller, but Salazar’s old favorite, roasted garlic potato leek soup, is often on the menu, which changes daily. Regulars know certain showstoppers are always available—including the chicken noodle, which is Celote’s favorite. “The ingredients can make you feel fantastic,” he says, adding that there’s one essential ingredient that’s not always mentioned in the recipe. “You have to make it with love.”

📍1372 Vegas Verdes, 505-316-5168