Brussels Sprouts Pizza with Cherries & Bacon

This Brussels Sprouts Pizza with Cherries & Bacon is easy enough for a weeknight – you cook the sprouts right on top of the pizza dough! Finish with a tart cherry glaze for an extra special touch.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the Michigan Cherry Committee. All opinions are 100% my own.

Sometimes, I’m pretty sure I should have named this blog “Foxes Love Pizza,” and just gone all in on homemade pizza! Homemade pizza is something I grew up eating, albeit classic pepperoni and mushroom most of the time.

But sometime over the years, as my husband and I started cooking together more, we began branching out into things like chicken pizza with roasted garlic, cheeseburger pizza with all of the fixings, and even crostini pizza bars for parties.

These days, homemade pizza is almost always on our weekly meal plan, sometimes if only to use up leftover ingredients from other meals.

Last week, I had a bag of Brussels sprouts originally destined for air fryer Brussels sprouts or maple Brussels sprouts that were abandoned a few days prior (I’m no hero, I love takeout after a long day). I had also made some bacon in the oven for breakfast, and had a few slices left over.

I paired those ingredients with Montmorency tart cherries to create this easy, savory and sweet, homemade Brussels sprouts pizza with cherry glaze.

This Brussels sprouts pizza is easy enough for a weeknight.

Just like my crab rangoon pizza, this Brussels sprouts pizza is SO simple, and can come together in less than 30 minutes if you already have your bacon cooked up (just make a few extra slices for breakfast or your weekend brunch buffet, up to 3 days in advance).

I highly recommend a pizza stone if you have it (more on that below). Throw the stone in the oven while the oven preheats, and prep your ingredients in the meantime.

Get the Montmorency tart cherry glaze started on the stove, and it will be ready (reduced to glazy, saucy perfection) by the time the pizza comes out of the oven.

You cook the Brussels sprouts right on the pizza!

My favorite part about this Brussels sprouts pizza is how the Brussels sprouts are cooked right on top of the dough!

Simply stretch the dough into a circle and carefully place it on the hot pizza stone. Then, thinly sliced Brussels sprouts are piled right on top of the raw dough.

Dough + sprouts go into a hot 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, in which time the dough will start to get browned and crispy, and the sprouts will roast into tender yumminess.

After 10 minutes, you’ll add creamy fresh mozzarella (make fancy toast for lunch the next day if you have any cheese left over!), that pre-cooked crispy bacon you have on hand, dried Montmorency tart cherries and a sprinkle of fresh thyme.

The pizza goes back into the oven for just 4 more minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the sprouts are cooked all the way through (and the cheese is bubbly perfection!).

Finish the pie with Parmesan cheese, fresh chives and red pepper flakes. Then, give it a drizzle of Montmorency tart cherry glaze. Slice it up and eat it right away!

Use Montmorency tart cherry juice to make an easy cherry glaze for drizzling.

I love a saucy condiment with homemade pizza, and I’m not really talking about bottled ranch dressing (although MAYBE pesto ranch).

I used to dig balsamic glaze, but balsamic vinegar and I had a falling out during my pregnancy, and we’re still working through our issues.

So, my go-to lately for Brussels sprouts pizza has been this tart cherry glaze, made by reducing Montmorency tart cherry juice and a bit of red wine vinegar to a glazy thickness.

Even here in Michigan, it’s rare to find fresh Montmorency tart cherries in the produce section! But the cool thing is that they’re always farm fresh when you buy them dried, frozen, canned or bottled. They’re picked at the peak of ripeness in summer so that you can enjoy them year-round.

For this cherry reduction sauce, I used bottled 100% Montmorency tart cherry juice. You can also use 100% Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate, which I like to keep on hand to add a splash of flavor and color to smoothies.

More information in the recipe card, but if you use concentrate to make your glaze, the work is already done for you. You don’t even need to reduce it down on the stove!

How to make sure the juice you use for your cherry reduction sauce is Michigan grown.

Just like with my jarcuterie with pickled Montmorency tart cherries, you want to be sure to use Michigan grown cherry products for this recipe.

Imported tart cherries are put in shipping containers and travel halfway around the world to get to you, whereas Michigan Montmorency tart cherries go straight from an American farm to your local grocery store.

But how do you tell the difference when you’re at the store shopping for juice for your cherry reduction sauce?

Take a look at the three bottles of juice above, and notice how the bottles are labeled with “Montmorency,” “U.S. Grown Cherries,” and “Product of USA.” If you see these labels at your grocery store, you can be confident that you are buying American-grown tart cherry products.

On the other hand, there are brands at the grocery store that have the appearance of being grown in the U.S., when they might not be. In the images above, notice that the package is labeled as simply “tart cherry” (NOT Montmorency). The back label also notes that this juice is a Product of Turkey.

Once you know what you’re looking for, you should be able to quickly scan the packages at your local store and find authentic USA-grown Montmorency tart cherry juice to use for your cherry glaze.

If you can, use a pizza stone for this Brussels sprouts pizza recipe!

Pizza stones are a wonderful tool to have if you’re a pizza lover because they help to achieve a crispy crust on this Brussels sprouts pizza without shelling out a few thousand dollars for an actual pizza oven.

You simply throw the pizza stone in the oven as it preheats and once the oven comes up to temp you put the freshly stretched dough down on the stone and stick the stone back in the oven to crisp up the crust. I love a nice crispy crust for buffalo shrimp pizza.

P.S. Make sure you brush up on how to clean a pizza stone to ensure it lasts a long time!