Heat up a large pot of water over medium-high heat and season it generously with salt. Make sure to take off the husk and all the silk threads from the ears of corn before cooking.
Once water starts to boil, lower the heat to medium-low and add corn. Cover the pot and let corn cook for about 10 minutes, until tender.
Take all the corn out onto a cutting board and let it cool enough to be handled.
To Make Corn Salad:
To cut corn kernels off the cob, stand corn up in a large mixing bowl or in a rimmed baking dish cut side down. Slice the kernels off with a sharp knife from top to bottom, close to the part where kernels attach to the cob. Turn the ear of corn and repeat slicing the kernels off all the way around.
Dice bell pepper, red onion, tomatoes, and avocado and add to the bowl. Put on gloves and dice jalapeno. (Gloves help protect your hands from spicy jalapeno juices. Discard gloves as soon as you finish dicing the peppers and add them to the bowl.)
Add lime juice, oil, cilantro, agave nectar, and seasonings to the bowl. Mix everything very well and serve.
You can serve this chilled or at room temperature. It you prefer the salad chilled, cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
Video
Notes
Jalapeño Peppers - Use fresh jalapeños and you can adjust the spice level just by choose older or younger jalapenos. Young jalapenos are less spicy and they have smooth, deep green skin. Older jalapenos get spicier as they age and they will have brown veins running along the skin. The more veins, the spicier the jalapeno. You can also discard jalapeno seeds if you want less spice of leave them in for more spice.
Storing - Leftover black bean and corn salad will only last 1-2 days. Since this salad contains avocado and tomatoes, those ingredients are the reason for a shorter shelf life. Make sure to store leftover corn salad in an air-tight food storage container, in the refrigerator. Eat within a day or two.
Make ahead - You can make the salad ahead of time just don’t add the avocado until ready to serve the salad! Also, I don’t recommend that you make it more than a day before, because the vegetables will start to wilt and release too many juices. With that in mind, black beans and corn salad can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for approximately 2-3 days (without avocado and tomatoes).