Carrot

A carrot is a root, and a root's job is to anchor the plant and pull water and nutrients from the soil — but it also stores sugar, which is why a carrot tastes sweet even raw. Cook it slowly and it tastes sweeter still. Carrots hold little starch and plenty of natural sugar already; heat just softens the cell walls so that sugar reaches your tongue more easily, and as water cooks away, what sugar remains gets more concentrated. One hundred grams gives you 41 kilocalories, mostly carbs, so a carrot sits closer to fruit than to lettuce.

Choose it firm, never floppy. A carrot that bends easily has been sitting too long — that rubbery give in your hand is a warning, and the taste behind it will disappoint you too. Smell the stem end — it should smell of earth and grass, not of nothing at all.

Some people say the thicker the carrot, the better it is. No! Thickness tells you about the field, not about the flavour. A fat carrot can be woody at the core, dry and bitter, while a slender one stays tender all the way through. Trust this misconception, and you'll fill your soup with a carrot whose heart has to be cut out and thrown away — a waste of the pot, and of your patience. Pick by firmness and smell, not by size.