diff --git a/cmd/show_test.go b/cmd/show_test.go
index 55017a7b20aa090d040cb1f183379597b9ace21c..a715d8ad69eb1a7b20e86df80ec9ef5b4942cfdc 100644
--- a/cmd/show_test.go
+++ b/cmd/show_test.go
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ func TestShow(t *testing.T) {
   "bool": true,
   "number": 42,
   "string": "bar",
+  "notAVal": "aVal",
   "array": ["one", 2, [3]],
   "object": {"foo": "bar"}
 }
@@ -60,6 +61,7 @@ func TestShow(t *testing.T) {
 			"-J", filepath.FromSlash("../testdata/lib"),
 			"-o", format,
 			filepath.FromSlash("../testdata/test.jsonnet"),
+			"-V", "aVar=aVal",
 		})
 
 		t.Log("output is", output)
diff --git a/testdata/test.jsonnet b/testdata/test.jsonnet
index f98a72df860010eb46154039ddc12ada117579e2..d0cd6a7f2ed8cdcbac66a0999ebcd83aaf948e4a 100644
--- a/testdata/test.jsonnet
+++ b/testdata/test.jsonnet
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 local test = import "test.libsonnet";
+local aVar = std.extVar("aVar");
 
 {
   apiVersion: "v1",
@@ -6,6 +7,7 @@ local test = import "test.libsonnet";
   items: [
     test {
       string: "bar",
+      notAVal : aVar,
     }
   ],
 }