Cold plates at a Nigerian party are underrated.

While the Jollof gets all the attention and the chicken disappears in the first twenty minutes, the salads sit quietly at the end of the table doing exactly what they are supposed to do — cutting through the richness of everything else and giving your stomach a moment to breathe.

This sweet corn salad is the one that gets finished. Not because it is the most complicated dish on the table, but because it is refreshing and slightly sweet and bright in a way that nothing else at an owambe usually is. It also takes twenty minutes to make and can be prepared the night before, which is always a good quality in a party dish.

What you need (serves 8 as a side)

• •2 tins Mega Sweet Corn, drained
• •1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• •1 green bell pepper, finely diced
• •1 small red onion, finely diced
• •2 stalks spring onion, sliced
• •1 medium carrot, grated or finely diced
• •Small handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

For the dressing

• •3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• •1 tablespoon salad cream
• •1 teaspoon sugar
• •1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar
• •Salt and white pepper to taste

How to make it:

Drain your sweet corn and spread it on a clean surface or paper towel for a few minutes. You want it dry — excess liquid will water down the dressing and make the salad soggy by the time it gets to the table.

Dice your peppers and onion as finely as you can manage. Chunky pieces in a salad like this are distracting — you want everything to be roughly the same small size so each forkful has a bit of everything.

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, salad cream, sugar, lemon juice, salt and white pepper. Taste it. It should be creamy, slightly tangy and lightly sweet. Adjust accordingly — more lemon if it tastes flat, more sugar if it is too sharp.

Combine the corn, all the vegetables and the parsley in a large bowl. Pour over the dressing and fold everything together gently. You are not tossing a salad here — fold, so you do not break up the corn kernels.

Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. The salad gets better as it sits — the dressing settles in and the flavours come together properly.

A note on the dressing The combination of mayonnaise and salad cream is specifically Nigerian and specifically correct. Salad cream alone is too sharp. Mayonnaise alone is too heavy. Together they create the flavour that Nigerian cold plates are supposed to have — the one people are trying to recreate when they say their aunty makes the best salad. This is probably what she uses.