diff --git a/nix/lib/salt-support/expand-template.nix b/nix/lib/salt-support/expand-template.nix
index f3cf49b..ece5912 100644
--- a/nix/lib/salt-support/expand-template.nix
+++ b/nix/lib/salt-support/expand-template.nix
@@ -5,11 +5,19 @@ name: template: data:
 let
   jsonFile =
     builtins.toFile "data.json" (builtins.toJSON data);
+  j2custom =
+    builtins.toFile "j2custom.py" ''
+      def j2_environment(env):
+        env.globals.update(
+            zip=zip
+        )
+        return env
+    '';
 in
 pkgs.runCommandLocal name {
   nativeBuildInputs = with pkgs; [
     pythonPackages.j2cli yaml2json
   ];
 } ''
-  j2 -f json ${template} ${jsonFile} > $out
+  j2 --customize ${j2custom} -f json ${template} ${jsonFile} > $out
 ''