Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup with Kale & Rice

More "stuff" from the CSA box to use up. I'm embarrassed to say I've had a bunch of kale sitting in my fridge for several weeks now... waiting, just waiting to be cooked. The most interesting use of kale I found was from my cookbook Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. This is adapted from that recipe with quantities greatly reduced. I almost cooked it on the stove and I'm glad I didn't because the flavors really came together after cooking for about 6 hours in the crockpot.

Ingredients
1 Tb olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup short grain brown rice
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
3 cups chopped kale, stems removed and chopped too
3 cups vegetable stock (I used "unchicken stock" and it was great)

Directions
Heat the crockpot to high and add oil, onion, carrots, and cloves. Stir around for about 10 minutes. Add rest of ingredients, lower heat, and cook until rice and kale are done, about 6 hours. Garnish with vegan parmesan cheese.