diff --git a/modules/programs/neovim.nix b/modules/programs/neovim.nix
index 5f5a06bd..a0122182 100644
--- a/modules/programs/neovim.nix
+++ b/modules/programs/neovim.nix
@@ -441,8 +441,8 @@ in
           withNodeJs = cfg.withNodeJs || cfg.coc.enable;
           plugins = nixpkgsCompatiblePlugins;
 
-          extraLuaPackages = lp: cfg.extraLuaPackages lp ++ vimPackageInfo.luaDependencies;
           inherit (cfg)
+            extraLuaPackages
             extraName
             withPython3
             withRuby
@@ -521,7 +521,6 @@ in
               ''
             else
               null;
-
         in
         lib.mkMerge [
           (lib.mkIf wrapperHasUserConfig (
diff --git a/tests/modules/programs/neovim/plugin-config.nix b/tests/modules/programs/neovim/plugin-config.nix
index 7ac11996..bd234e95 100644
--- a/tests/modules/programs/neovim/plugin-config.nix
+++ b/tests/modules/programs/neovim/plugin-config.nix
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ lib.mkIf config.test.enableBig {
         # to test passthru.initLua is taken into account
         plugin = unicode-vim;
       }
+      {
+        # test pure lua dependencies: telescope relies on the lua version of plenary
+        plugin = telescope-nvim;
+      }
     ];
     extraLuaPackages = ps: [ ps.luautf8 ];
   };
@@ -48,15 +52,26 @@ lib.mkIf config.test.enableBig {
     in
     ''
       vimout=$(mktemp)
+
+      export PATH="$TESTED/home-path/bin:$PATH"
+      export HOME=$TMPDIR/hm-user
+      initLua="$TESTED/home-files/.config/nvim/init.lua"
+
       echo "redir >> /dev/stdout | echo g:hmExtraConfig | echo g:hmPlugins | echo g:Unicode_data_directory | redir END" \
-        | ${pkgs.neovim}/bin/nvim -es -u "$TESTED/home-files/.config/nvim/init.lua" \
+        | nvim -es -i NONE -u "$initLua" \
         > "$vimout" || true
+
       assertFileContains "$vimout" "HM_EXTRA_CONFIG"
       assertFileContains "$vimout" "HM_PLUGINS_CONFIG"
       # testing that unicode-vim's value is echoed
       assertFileContains "$vimout" "autoload/unicode"
 
-      initLua="$TESTED/home-files/.config/nvim/init.lua"
+      # check telescope can find plenary/does not trigger any error
+      if ! nvim -V3log.txt -i NONE -es -u "$initLua" -c "lua require('plenary') " -c "quit"; then
+        fail "Could not require the 'plenary'  dependency pulled by telescope.nvim"
+        cat log.txt
+      fi
+
       assertFileContent $(normalizeStorePaths "$initLua") ${./plugin-config.expected}
 
       # Verify generatedConfigs evaluated properly (issue #8371)