diff --git a/repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/install-miniconda.bash b/repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/install-miniconda.bash
index ada8e0b3..54fcd55d 100755
--- a/repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/install-miniconda.bash
+++ b/repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/install-miniconda.bash
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ CONDA_VERSION=4.5.11
 URL="https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-${MINICONDA_VERSION}-Linux-x86_64.sh"
 INSTALLER_PATH=/tmp/miniconda-installer.sh
 
+# make sure we don't do anything funky with user's $HOME
+# since this is run as root
+unset HOME
+
 wget --quiet $URL -O ${INSTALLER_PATH}
 chmod +x ${INSTALLER_PATH}
 
diff --git a/tests/venv/repo-path/README.rst b/tests/conda/repo-path/README.rst
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/venv/repo-path/README.rst
rename to tests/conda/repo-path/README.rst
diff --git a/tests/conda/repo-path/environment.yml b/tests/conda/repo-path/environment.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6a91d667
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/conda/repo-path/environment.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+dependencies:
+  - numpy
diff --git a/tests/venv/repo-path/extra-args.yaml b/tests/conda/repo-path/extra-args.yaml
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/venv/repo-path/extra-args.yaml
rename to tests/conda/repo-path/extra-args.yaml
diff --git a/tests/venv/repo-path/verify b/tests/conda/repo-path/verify
similarity index 61%
rename from tests/venv/repo-path/verify
rename to tests/conda/repo-path/verify
index 63c7200c..6df74cbd 100755
--- a/tests/venv/repo-path/verify
+++ b/tests/conda/repo-path/verify
@@ -7,4 +7,7 @@ assert sys.executable == '/srv/conda/bin/python'
 
 # Repo should be in /srv/repo
 assert os.path.exists('/srv/repo/verify')
-assert os.path.abspath(__file__) == '/srv/repo/verify'
\ No newline at end of file
+assert os.path.abspath(__file__) == '/srv/repo/verify'
+
+# We should be able to import the package in environment.yml
+import numpy