Carrots
Baby carrots look cute, and it's certainly worth harvesting some at this stage, but bigger ones are equally sweet and delicious.
There's no need to peel them. Because they're so fresh a gentle scrub is all they need and they're good to go.
Boiled Carrots
Carrots don't take long to boil. 4-5 minutes should be enough. Any longer and the flavour will start to leach out. Eat them plain, or try them tossed in a little melted butter or olive oil, perhaps with some finely chopped mint sprinkled over the top.
Root Juice
Make a delicious juice by combining carrots, raw beetroot, fennel and parsley. Chop them into chunks and run them through your juicer. Go easy with the fennel because it has a strong flavour. Parsley's phenomenally good for you, so add lots. Adjust quantities to taste.
Carrot Salad
Grate three to four carrots and mix with raisins and toasted pine nuts or walnuts. Pour over vinagrette with a little Dijon mustard mixed in for extra zing.
Add carrots to other salads by taking off shavings with a speed peeler and draping them over the top.
Roasted Carrots
By roasting carrots you caramelise the skin which increases the sweetness, and remove some of the moisture which intensifies the flavour. Wonderful.
Chop the leaves off your carrots to leave a pretty stump of stalks. Scrub and toss into a roasting tin with a handful of unpeeled garlic cloves and a few sprigs of woody herbs like rosemary or thyme. Mix with a few glugs of olive oil and roast at 220C for 45 minutes until patched with brown.
If you're making roast potatoes, just add carrots to the pan. There's no need to par boil.