In the heat of summer, when cooking a meal seems a chore and it's too hot even to venture from the house to a restaurant and have someone else cook for you, there's always salad. With fresh organic salad greens, triple-washed and bagged, available from the supermarket or produce store, half the work is already done for you. A big bowl of fresh greens with grated carrot and cheese, slices of cucumber, fresh parsley, chives and mint from your herb pots, a sprinkle of toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds, a slice or two of sweet onion and tomato-isn't your mouth watering already?

But don't just grab that bottle of salad dressing you've been keeping in the fridge for too long anyway. In a few minutes and with simple ingredients you can mix up a delicious dressing that will enhance your meal, and you won't want to go store-bought again.

I've always made my own dressings, and our all-time family favourite is a simple vinaigrette, made with seasoned rice vinegar. (Each of the available brands has its own distinctive character, but I like Nakano as well as any.) I make a cupful of dressing at a time and keep it in the cupboard. If you prefer, use plain rice vinegar and add a little sugar and salt until you reach your preferred balance of sweet, sour, and salty. Place a half-cup of seasoned rice vinegar in a small bowl, and whisk in a half-teaspoon of dry mustard, a half-teaspoon of Mrs Dash Original Blend seasoning, and a half-cup of olive oil. You can add pepper to taste, and salt, if the seasoned vinegar isn't salty enough for you. Keep this dressing in a screw-cap bottle so that you can shake it well before use.

Another favourite dressing of mine is Orange Miso, which is particularly tasty with salads that include nuts or fruit. Try it with a bowl of salad greens, sliced almonds, and orange segments or grape halves. It's also very good in grain-and-vegetable salads: quinoa or millet, with cooked vegetables such as beets, carrots, green beans, peas, or corn. To prepare it you will need miso paste. I like aka, a lighter miso and less intense in flavour than the dark-hued ones. In a small bowl, combine four tablespoons of frozen orange-juice concentrate with two teaspoons of maple syrup, four teaspoons of miso paste, and half to one teaspoon of salt. When the mixture is completely blended, add four tablespoons of olive oil and whisk until smooth. If you like the piquancy of fresh ginger, add one teaspoon of grated ginger at this point. The recipe makes about three-quarters of a cup of dressing.

With a lemon rather than the orange note, you can make another versatile miso dressing. Blend a quarter-cup of miso paste with a quarter-cup of seasoned rice vinegar. Then add two teaspoons of honey, a quarter-cup of lemon juice (you may want to add a little more to taste), four tablespoons of tamari, two tablespoons of sesame oil, and one tablespoon of canola oil. Substituting mirin for the seasoned rice vinegar adds even more flavour. This recipe yields about one-and-a-quarter cups and should be kept refrigerated. It is good on a very simple green salad, or to add flavour to chilled noodles, rice, sprouts, and raw or cooked vegetables.

If you enjoy the flavour of fresh garlic, you'll want to try my Green Dressing. It's great for using up the darkest outside leaves of a romaine lettuce, which otherwise might be discarded, and it will make one-and-a-half cups of gloriously green and assertive dressing, delicious with lettuce, or a mixed vegetable salad, or drizzled over sliced tomatoes and cucumber. Blend or process three large dark-green romaine leaves, coarsely chopped, two or three large stems of parsley, one green onion, one clove of garlic, a quarter-teaspoon of salt, pepper to taste, two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and a half-teaspoon of honey. When the mixture is smooth, pour it into a bowl and stir in a half-cup of buttermilk until well-blended. Adjust the flavour as required by adding more honey and salt. The dressing needs to chill for a few hours before use, to let the flavours develop. -

These and other dressings are included in Elisabeth Caton and John Burns's The Urban Picnic (Arsenal Pulp Press, $24.95).