diff --git a/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/__tests__/__snapshots__/parser.spec.js.snap b/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/__tests__/__snapshots__/parser.spec.js.snap
index 4c22ae72..74a86aab 100644
--- a/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/__tests__/__snapshots__/parser.spec.js.snap
+++ b/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/__tests__/__snapshots__/parser.spec.js.snap
@@ -1075,6 +1075,26 @@ Object {
 }
 `;
 
+exports[`Compile markdown to Prosemirror document structure should compile plugins 1`] = `
+Object {
+  "content": Array [
+    Object {
+      "type": "paragraph",
+    },
+    Object {
+      "content": Array [
+        Object {
+          "text": "{{< test >}}",
+          "type": "text",
+        },
+      ],
+      "type": "paragraph",
+    },
+  ],
+  "type": "doc",
+}
+`;
+
 exports[`Compile markdown to Prosemirror document structure should compile simple markdown 1`] = `
 Object {
   "content": Array [
diff --git a/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/__tests__/parser.spec.js b/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/__tests__/parser.spec.js
index 07972fa1..5b8fff61 100644
--- a/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/__tests__/parser.spec.js
+++ b/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/__tests__/parser.spec.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { fromJS } from 'immutable';
 import { Schema } from "prosemirror-model";
 import { schema } from "prosemirror-markdown";
 
@@ -7,7 +8,51 @@ const testSchema = new Schema({
   nodes: schema.nodeSpec,
   marks: schema.markSpec,
 });
-const parser = makeParser(testSchema);
+
+// Temporary plugins test, uses preloaded plugins from ../parser
+// TODO: make the parser more testable
+const testPlugins = fromJS([
+  {
+    label: 'Image',
+    id: 'image',
+    fromBlock: match => match && {
+      image: match[2],
+      alt: match[1],
+    },
+    toBlock: data => `![${ data.alt }](${ data.image })`,
+    toPreview: data => <img src={data.image} alt={data.alt} />,
+    pattern: /^!\[([^\]]+)]\(([^)]+)\)$/,
+    fields: [{
+      label: 'Image',
+      name: 'image',
+      widget: 'image',
+    }, {
+      label: 'Alt Text',
+      name: 'alt',
+    }],
+  },
+  {
+    id: "youtube",
+    label: "Youtube",
+    fields: [{name: 'id', label: 'Youtube Video ID'}],
+    pattern: /^{{<\s?youtube (\S+)\s?>}}/,
+    fromBlock: function(match) {
+      return {
+        id: match[1]
+      };
+    },
+    toBlock: function(obj) {
+      return '{{< youtube ' + obj.id + ' >}}';
+    },
+    toPreview: function(obj) {
+      return (
+        '<img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/' + obj.id + '/maxresdefault.jpg" alt="Youtube Video"/>'
+      );
+    }
+  },
+]);
+
+const parser = makeParser(testSchema, testPlugins);
 
 describe("Compile markdown to Prosemirror document structure", () => {
   it("should compile simple markdown", () => {
@@ -127,6 +172,15 @@ How far is it to [Google](https://google.com) land?
     expect(parser(value)).toMatchSnapshot();
   });
 
+  it("should compile plugins", () => {
+    const value = `
+![test](test.png)
+
+{{< test >}}
+`;
+    expect(parser(value)).toMatchSnapshot();
+  });
+
   it("should compile kitchen sink example", () => {
     const value = `
 # An exhibit of Markdown
diff --git a/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/parser.js b/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/parser.js
index fe015ff8..a4605fcf 100644
--- a/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/parser.js
+++ b/src/components/Widgets/MarkdownControlElements/VisualEditor/parser.js
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ const visit = require("unist-util-visit");
 const { Mark } = require("prosemirror-model");
 
 let schema;
+let plugins
 let activeMarks = Mark.none;
 let textsArray = [];
 
@@ -36,6 +37,38 @@ const processMdastNode = node => {
     textsArray = [];
     return pNode;
   } else if (node.type === "paragraph") {
+
+    // TODO: improve plugin handling
+
+    // Handle externally defined plugins (they'll be wrapped in paragraphs)
+    if (node.children.length === 1 && node.children[0].type === 'text') {
+      const value = node.children[0].value;
+      const plugin = plugins.find(plugin => plugin.get('pattern').test(value));
+      if (plugin) {
+        const nodeType = schema.nodes[`plugin_${plugin.get('id')}`];
+        const data = plugin.get('fromBlock').call(plugin, value.match(plugin.get('pattern')));
+        return nodeType.create(data);
+      }
+    }
+
+    // Handle the internally defined image plugin. At this point the token has
+    // already been parsed as an image by Remark, so we have to catch it by
+    // checking for the 'image' type.
+    if (node.children.length === 1 && node.children[0].type === 'image') {
+      const { url, alt } = node.children[0];
+
+      // Until we improve the editor components API for built in components,
+      // we'll mock the result of String.prototype.match to pass in to the image
+      // plugin's fromBlock method.
+      const matches = [ , alt, url ];
+      const plugin = plugins.find(plugin => plugin.id === 'image');
+      if (plugin) {
+        const nodeType = schema.nodes.plugin_image;
+        const data = plugin.get('fromBlock').call(plugin, matches);
+        return nodeType.create(data);
+      }
+    }
+
     node.children.forEach(childNode => processMdastNode(childNode));
     const pNode = schema.node("paragraph", {}, textsArray);
     textsArray = [];
@@ -121,9 +154,10 @@ const compileMarkdownToProseMirror = src => {
   return doc;
 };
 
-module.exports = (s, plugins) => {
+module.exports = (s, p) => {
   //console.log(s)
   //console.log(s.nodes.code_block.create({ params: { language: 'javascript' } }))
   schema = s;
+  plugins = p;
   return compileMarkdownToProseMirror;
 };