diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2d5d73a01b..11d38d438d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -63,6 +63,23 @@ Update all GStreamer modules without rebuilding:
 ninja -C build/ git-update
 ```
 
+## Custom subprojects
+
+We also added a meson option, 'custom_subprojects', that allows the user
+to provide a comma-separated list of subprojects that should be built
+alongside the default ones.
+
+To use it:
+
+```
+cd subprojects
+git clone my_subproject
+cd ../build
+rm -rf * && meson .. -Dcustom_subprojects=my_subproject
+ninja
+```
+
+
 ## Run tests
 
 You can easily run the test of all the components:
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index a4ff133805..ea5d80d189 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -90,6 +90,14 @@ import os
 os.symlink(os.path.join('@1@', 'subprojects', '@0@'),
     os.path.join('@1@', '@0@'))
 '''
+
+foreach custom_subproj: get_option('custom_subprojects').split(',')
+    if custom_subproj != ''
+        message ('Adding custom subproject ' + custom_subproj)
+        subprojects += [custom_subproj]
+    endif
+endforeach
+
 foreach subproj: subprojects
     subproject(subproj, version: gst_version)
 
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index ddcc13f50d..fc73eb84fc 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@ option('disable_gst_editing_services', type : 'boolean', value : false)
 option('disable_rtsp_server', type : 'boolean', value : false)
 option('disable_gst_omx', type : 'boolean', value : true)
 option('disable_gstreamer_vaapi', type : 'boolean', value : false)
+option('custom_subprojects', type : 'string', value : '', description : 'Comma-separated project names')