RECIPES: Five carrot soups rooted in flavor

Pity the carrot.

The orange (but not always) root vegetable is everywhere as a supporting player — crudite platters, mirepoix, pot roast vegetable mix — but rarely the star of the show. And when it is served solo, it's often as a side dish gilded in syrupy layers of brown sugar or honey.

I recently remarked to my husband, after biting into an edible but slightly bland braised carrot, that I wanted carrots that taste like magic. The way good corn on the cob slathered lightly in butter tastes like sunshine. Or asparagus grilled or roasted until it teeters on the edge of crisp and tender, tasting vegetal, nutty and caramelized all at once. Like a juicy ripe tomato in July served thickly sliced with a shower of flakey salt.