diff --git a/src/nix-instantiate/nix-instantiate.cc b/src/nix-instantiate/nix-instantiate.cc
index c48549511..75ba88e7d 100644
--- a/src/nix-instantiate/nix-instantiate.cc
+++ b/src/nix-instantiate/nix-instantiate.cc
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ static Path gcRoot;
 static int rootNr = 0;
 
 
-enum OutputKind { okPlain, okXML, okJSON };
+enum OutputKind { okPlain, okXML, okJSON, okRaw };
 
 void processExpr(EvalState & state, const Strings & attrPaths,
     bool parseOnly, bool strict, Bindings & autoArgs,
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ void processExpr(EvalState & state, const Strings & attrPaths,
             else if (output == okJSON) {
                 printValueAsJSON(state, strict, vRes, v.determinePos(noPos), std::cout, context);
                 std::cout << std::endl;
+            } else if (output == okRaw) {
+                std::cout << *state.coerceToString(noPos, vRes, context, "while generating the nix-instantiate output");
+                std::cout << std::endl;
             } else {
                 if (strict) state.forceValueDeep(vRes);
                 std::set<const void *> seen;
@@ -136,6 +139,8 @@ static int main_nix_instantiate(int argc, char * * argv)
                 outputKind = okXML;
             else if (*arg == "--json")
                 outputKind = okJSON;
+            else if (*arg == "--raw")
+                outputKind = okRaw;
             else if (*arg == "--no-location")
                 xmlOutputSourceLocation = false;
             else if (*arg == "--strict")