This was quite easy to make and turned out pretty good. I almost went 4 stars since I will not say this is something to rave about but, then again, it is not a main-course type soup. Compared to my expectation it was quite good. Salt & pepper to taste when eating was needed but otherwise I followed the recipe almost to the word. I used some green onions instead of regular and replaced the pumpkin pie spice with cinnamon, nutmeg, clover and ginger (which is just a recipe for pumpkin pie spice). My 5 star rating is also because I wanted a way to work some other vegetables into my diet and this soup allows me to add pumpkin without making a desert dish. Regarding step 2: My soup seemed to be fully pureed without this step. I did, however, have a stick blender so used it quickly right in the pot to further refine the consistency. It seems like you could skip this step if you finely dice the onions and the pumpkin is already well pureed.

Smooth and creamy! I left out the butter(used vegetable spray) and the bouillon cubes. The flavor is carried by the hot spices!