Slow Cooker Lentils, Veggies and Rice

I will be honest with you, when I saw the bag of lentils in my share I totally had no idea what to do with them. I have never cooked lentils.  I’m pretty sure if you are a CSAer you know this feeling:  hmmm, I have no idea what that is or what to do with it.  I think this is a really fun part of being in a CSA, never knowing what may pop up in your share box,  then transforming that into something delicious and putting it on the table for dinner.  So, lentils…hmmm.  Onto the internet I went to discover what they are all about.  Most of the recipes I looked at had lentils paired with rice, so who am I to argue with that.  Take a look at what I did for dinner on this snowy Meatless Monday: 

I sprayed my crockpot with non stick spray and put in white rice, black rice and green lentils (it looked so pretty!).

Next came the veggies.  I put in my final Springdell turnip from last week and 4 carrots, all peeled and cut up.

From there in went the herb and spices.  Minced garlic, soy sauce, celery seed, onion powder, and olive oil.

Finally, I added stock for the rice and lentils to gain more flavor.  Since it is another snow day for my boys I could simply set the crock pot on low for 6 hours and continue on with our snow day.  The beauty of the slow cooker.  This is what I had when I lifted the cover.

Again being honest here, not the most delicious looking dish but the smell was really good.  I decided to brighten it up a bit and add a textural difference by serving it on a bed of spinach and some chopped cucumber.  Much more appealing.  The only other change I made was to put some of the goat cheese crumbles on top, which my husband says really helped the dish come together.

So that is my first run with lentils, I have to say it was pretty successful.  Enjoy!