Slow Cooker Brown Rice with Veggies and Feta
Slow Cooker Brown Rice with Veggies and Feta is an easy side dish or a meatless main dish that’s a great way to use zucchini! And this recipe has a lot of zucchini, red bell pepper, and Feta to balance out the rice, so it only has 13 net carbs per serving!
PIN the Slow Cooker Brown Rice to try it later!
This Slow Cooker Brown Rice with Veggies and Feta is a simple way to make a brown rice side dish or meatless main dish without heating up the house. I made this with my nephew Jake and even though we ended up tasting it at the end of a long cooking day when we had sampled lots of other things, we gobbled this up and I was excited to have the leftovers another day.
And the recipe couldn’t be simpler. Start by making slow cooker brown rice with vegetable stock, spices, and a chopped onion until the rice is nearly done. While the rice cooks, chop up vegetables of your choice; we used zucchini and red bell pepper, but you could also substitute other vegetables that taste good with Feta. (And if you have a lot of zucchini that needs to be used, you can use even more zucchini!)
Add the vegetables and cook until they’re tender, then stir in some crumbled Feta and serve, topped with a little more Feta sprinkled on top. Personally I think this would be fabulous for veggie side dish or a perfect a meatless dinner!
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- onion
- rice, preferably Ben’s Original Brown Rice (affiliate link)
- canned vegetable broth (affiliate link)
- Greek Seasoning (affiliate link)
- Spike Seasoning (affiliate link) or other all-purpose seasoning blend
- dried dill weed (affiliate link)
- zucchini
- red bell pepper
- crumbled Feta
Why make Brown Rice in the Slow Cooker?
I’ve had such good luck with slow cooker brown rice, and if you want an easy way to cook rice that’s infused with flavor it only takes about 2 hours to make perfect rice using the slow cooker.
What brown rice did I use for the Slow Cooker Brown Rice?
I’m a huge fan of Ben’s Whole Grain Brown Rice (affiliate link) because the parboiling method used in processing Ben’s Rice makes it lower on the glycemic index. But use any brown rice you prefer for this slow cooker brown rice recipe. I am guessing you can make this with other long-grain rice if you reduce the cooking time a little, but I haven’t tried that myself.
More ideas for Slow Cooker Rice:
- Slow Cooker Rice with Sausage and Peppers
- Greek Slow Cooker Rice
- Slow Cooker Green Chile Rice casserole
How to Make Slow Cooker Brown Rice with Veggies and Feta:
(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- Chop up a medium-sized onion. Put the onion, brown rice, vegetable broth, Greek Seasoning (affiliate link), Spike Seasoning (affiliate link), and dried dill weed (affiliate link) in the slow cooker and cook for 1 hour 20 minutes hours on high.
- I used Uncle Ben’s Brown Rice (affiliate link); other types of brown rice may take longer to cook.
- Cut up about 3 cup of zucchini pieces. I cut each zucchini into six or eight long pieces and trimmed away the middle white part before I cut the smaller pieces.
- Chop up one red bell pepper.
- After one hour and 2 minutes, check the rice; it should be close to done but still have some bite.
- Gently stir in zucchini and red pepper and cook about 45 minutes more. If you want the veggies more well-done you might want to cook it 5-10 minutes longer.
- While the vegetables cook, crumble up 6 oz. Feta, more or less to taste.
- When veggies are done, stir in most of the crumbled Feta, saving enough to sprinkle a little on the top of each serving, Enjoy!
- This makes six servings if you’re serving as a side dish or small bowl meal. If the bowl is going to be the entire meal it is probably only 4 or 5 servings.
More Slow Cooker Recipes to Try:
You can use Slow Cooker Recipes to see all the recipes on my blog that use a slow cooker. You might also like to see Keto Crock Pot Recipes for more slow cooker dinner ideas!
Slow Cooker Brown Rice with Veggies and Feta
Slow Cooker Brown Rice with Veggies and Feta is an easy side dish or a meatless meal made in the slow cooker.
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 C Uncle Ben’s Brown Rice
- one 14 oz. can vegetable broth
- 1 tsp. Greek Seasoning
- 1/2 tsp. Spike Seasoning
- 1/2 tsp. dill weed
- 3 cups diced zucchini cubes (see notes)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 6 oz. crumbled Feta (more or less to taste)
Instructions
- Chop onion into pieces slightly less than 1/2 inch square.
- Spray the inside of the slow cooker with non-stick spray or mist with olive oil.
- Put the chopped onion, rice, vegetable broth, Greek Seasoning (affiliate link), Spike Seasoning (affiliate link), and dried dill weed (affiliate link) into the slow cooker and stir.
- Cook on high for 1 hour 20 minutes, or until the rice is nearly tender but still has a little bite. (If you’re using a different type of rice it will probably take longer to cook.)
- While the rice cooks, cut up the vegetables into short strips or cubes about 1 inch square.
- It’s important to have vegetables in pieces about the same size so they cook in approximately the same time.
- When the rice is nearly done, add the vegetables and continue to cook on high for 45 - 55 minutes more.
- While vegetables cook, crumble about 8 oz. of Feta.
- After 45 minutes, check to see if vegetables are done to your liking.
- When they are done to your taste, stir in most of the crumbled Feta, reserving a few tablespoons of Feta to sprinkle some on the top of each serving.
- Serve hot. This wasn’t bad when it had been refrigerated and reheated, but it was definitely best when freshly made.
Notes
I'm a fan of Uncle Ben's Brown Rice (affiliate link); other brown rice may take a bit longer to cook. You can use either zucchini or yellow summer squash. If you have a lot of zucchini this is a good recipe to use even more zucchini!
I used a Crock-Pot 3.5 Quart Slow Cooker (affiliate link) for this recipe, but any slow cooker that’s 3-4 quarts will work.
This recipe created by Kalyn with suggestions and tasting assistance from Jake.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 144Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 25mgSodium 845mgCarbohydrates 15gFiber 2gSugar 5gProtein 7g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
I’m not tagging this Slow Cooker Brown Rice with Veggies and Feta as low-carb because rice isn’t something low-carb eaters are looking for. But it does have a lot of zucchini, red bell peppers, and Feta and only 13 net carbs per serving. The use of rice makes this limited to Phase 2 or 3 for the original South Beach Diet.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Slow Cooker Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This Slow Cooker Brown Rice recipe was first posted in 2014. It was last updated with more information in 2024.
8 Comments on “Slow Cooker Brown Rice with Veggies and Feta”
Ann, hope you enjoy!
Thanks Zerrin! We really liked it.
What an amazing combination! Would make a great light lunch.
This sounds delicious and I have all the ingredients so will give it a try.
Ann
Thanks Lydia and Joanne. We really loved this for an easy meal that's heavy on veggies. I'm going to try it again with fresh green beans when they're in season.
Whoa! This is veggie loaded in a crazy way. Love it!
I always forget about making rice in the slow cooker. What a great way to keep the kitchen cool in the summer, and still incorporate summer veggies into a completely cooked in the slow cooker meal.
Janel, hope you enjoy!
I love bowl meals. What an easy way to make rice. I definitely want to give this a try.