Thinking this morning about how a field of dandelions is actually quite pretty, and how they are/were a vital source of food for bees and humans, and how they might be the most reviled plant in America because they have the gall to be strong enough to ruin a patch of over-manicured invasive grass
I learned dandelions were edible as a kid, along with some other common american weeds like yellow wood sorrel (oxalis stricta), but only recently remembered that I used to eat them.
The greens are essentially interchangeable with arugula in a culinary sense, with slightly less 'bite' to them. So they go great in salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes, and more! They're less bitter if you pick younger leaves closer to the center of the plant and pick from plants that have yet to bloom.
The whole plant is also edible from flowers to root. The large tap roots are difficult to remove from the clay soil we have here, but apparently you can steam or boil them for a couple minutes to remove the outer skin and then prepare them much as you would carrots or parsnips.
May go without saying, but when foraging dandelions try to avoid doing so anywhere that may have been treated with pesticides or herbicides, or is otherwise too close to a pollution source like a busy road. Unfortunately this excludes a lot of public land, but dandelions are abundant enough in the US that there's bound to be some good source in your area, and I understand they're commonplace in much of europe as well.
I have two bottles left from last year, and I'll make more if I can find a meadow free of both pesticide and dog piss
