diff --git a/src/content/read.rs b/src/content/read.rs
index 39efbdb..9c307ad 100644
--- a/src/content/read.rs
+++ b/src/content/read.rs
@@ -118,16 +118,30 @@ pub fn read(cache: &Path, sri: &Integrity) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
 }
 
 #[cfg(any(feature = "async-std", feature = "tokio"))]
-pub async fn read_async<'a>(cache: &'a Path, sri: &'a Integrity) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
-    let cpath = path::content_path(cache, sri);
+pub async fn read_async<'c, 's>(cache: &'c Path, sri: Integrity, verify_integrity: bool) -> Result<(Vec<u8>, Integrity)> {
+    let cpath = path::content_path(&cache, &sri);
     let ret = crate::async_lib::read(&cpath).await.with_context(|| {
         format!(
             "Failed to read contents for file at {}",
-            path::content_path(cache, sri).display()
+            path::content_path(&cache, &sri).display()
         )
     })?;
-    sri.check(&ret)?;
-    Ok(ret)
+    Ok(if verify_integrity {
+        // we require owned Integrity because of the below move which would otherwise try to
+        // provide a reference to a closure that moves to another thread, i.e. `'s: 'static` which fails 
+        let integrity_check = move || {
+            sri.check(&ret)?;
+            Ok::<_, ssri::Error>((sri, ret))
+        };
+        #[cfg(feature = "tokio")]
+        let (sri, ret) = tokio::task::spawn_blocking(integrity_check).await??;
+        #[cfg(feature = "async-std")]
+        let (sri, ret) = async_std::task::spawn_blocking(integrity_check).await?;
+
+        (ret, sri)
+    } else {
+        (ret, sri)
+    })
 }
 
 pub fn reflink_unchecked(cache: &Path, sri: &Integrity, to: &Path) -> Result<()> {
diff --git a/src/errors.rs b/src/errors.rs
index ccb864d..30e1cd5 100644
--- a/src/errors.rs
+++ b/src/errors.rs
@@ -31,6 +31,12 @@ pub enum Error {
     #[error(transparent)]
     #[diagnostic(code(cacache::integrity_error), url(docsrs))]
     IntegrityError(#[from] ssri::Error),
+
+    /// Returned when a Tokio join error occured.
+    #[cfg(feature="tokio")]
+    #[error(transparent)]
+    #[diagnostic(code(cacache::tokio_joinerror), url(docsrs))]
+    TokioJoinError(#[from] tokio::task::JoinError)
 }
 
 /// The result type returned by calls to this library
diff --git a/src/get.rs b/src/get.rs
index b4f8101..faee3f3 100644
--- a/src/get.rs
+++ b/src/get.rs
@@ -159,7 +159,40 @@ where
 {
     async fn inner(cache: &Path, key: &str) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
         if let Some(entry) = index::find_async(cache, key).await? {
-            read_hash(cache, &entry.integrity).await
+            read_hash(cache, entry.integrity).await.map(|(r, _i)| r)
+        } else {
+            Err(Error::EntryNotFound(cache.to_path_buf(), key.into()))
+        }
+    }
+    inner(cache.as_ref(), key.as_ref()).await
+}
+
+/// Reads the entire contents of a cache file into a bytes vector, looking the
+/// data up by key. Skips integrity checking. Use this for loading large files.
+///
+/// ## Example
+/// ```no_run
+/// use async_std::prelude::*;
+/// use async_attributes;
+///
+/// #[async_attributes::main]
+/// async fn main() -> cacache::Result<()> {
+///     let data: Vec<u8> = cacache::read_no_integrity("./my-cache", "my-key").await?;
+///     Ok(())
+/// }
+/// ```
+/// 
+/// If you have no integrity this function is for you.
+#[doc(hidden)]
+#[cfg(any(feature = "async-std", feature = "tokio"))]
+pub async fn read_no_integrity<P, K>(cache: P, key: K) -> Result<Vec<u8>>
+where
+    P: AsRef<Path>,
+    K: AsRef<str>,
+{
+    async fn inner(cache: &Path, key: &str) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
+        if let Some(entry) = index::find_async(cache, key).await? {
+            read_hash_no_integrity(cache, entry.integrity).await.map(|(r, _i)| r)
         } else {
             Err(Error::EntryNotFound(cache.to_path_buf(), key.into()))
         }
@@ -178,16 +211,42 @@ where
 /// #[async_attributes::main]
 /// async fn main() -> cacache::Result<()> {
 ///     let sri = cacache::write("./my-cache", "my-key", b"hello").await?;
-///     let data: Vec<u8> = cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", &sri).await?;
+///     let (data, _): (Vec<u8>, _) = cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", sri).await?;
 ///     Ok(())
 /// }
 /// ```
 #[cfg(any(feature = "async-std", feature = "tokio"))]
-pub async fn read_hash<P>(cache: P, sri: &Integrity) -> Result<Vec<u8>>
+pub async fn read_hash<P>(cache: P, sri: Integrity) -> Result<(Vec<u8>, Integrity)>
 where
     P: AsRef<Path>,
 {
-    read::read_async(cache.as_ref(), sri).await
+    read::read_async(cache.as_ref(), sri, true).await
+}
+
+/// Reads the entire contents of a cache file into a bytes vector, looking the
+/// data up by its content address. Skips integrity checking. Use this for large files.
+///
+/// ## Example
+/// ```no_run
+/// use async_std::prelude::*;
+/// use async_attributes;
+///
+/// #[async_attributes::main]
+/// async fn main() -> cacache::Result<()> {
+///     let sri = cacache::write("./my-cache", "my-key", b"hello").await?;
+///     let (data, _): (Vec<u8>, _) = cacache::read_hash_no_integrity("./my-cache", sri).await?;
+///     Ok(())
+/// }
+/// ```
+/// 
+/// If you have no integrity this function is for you.
+#[doc(hidden)]
+#[cfg(any(feature = "async-std", feature = "tokio"))]
+pub async fn read_hash_no_integrity<P>(cache: P, sri: Integrity) -> Result<(Vec<u8>, Integrity)>
+where
+    P: AsRef<Path>,
+{
+    read::read_async(cache.as_ref(), sri, false).await
 }
 
 /// Copies cache data to a specified location. Returns the number of bytes
@@ -995,7 +1054,7 @@ mod tests {
         let dir = tmp.path().to_owned();
         let sri = crate::write(&dir, "my-key", b"hello world").await.unwrap();
 
-        let data = crate::read_hash(&dir, &sri).await.unwrap();
+        let (data, _) = crate::read_hash(&dir, sri).await.unwrap();
         assert_eq!(data, b"hello world");
     }
 
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 07f0826..132addd 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@
 //!   let sri = cacache::write("./my-cache", "key", b"hello").await?;
 //!
 //!   // ...data gets looked up by `sri` ("Subresource Integrity").
-//!   let data = cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", &sri).await?;
+//!   let (data, _) = cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", sri).await?;
 //!   assert_eq!(data, b"hello");
 //!
 //!   Ok(())
diff --git a/src/put.rs b/src/put.rs
index 5dc7e60..5efc2fc 100644
--- a/src/put.rs
+++ b/src/put.rs
@@ -652,7 +652,7 @@ mod tests {
         let integrity = crate::write_hash(&dir, &original)
             .await
             .expect("should be able to write a hash asynchronously");
-        let bytes = crate::read_hash(&dir, &integrity)
+        let (bytes, _) = crate::read_hash(&dir, integrity)
             .await
             .expect("should be able to read back what we wrote");
         let result =
diff --git a/src/rm.rs b/src/rm.rs
index bc15000..c2d7345 100644
--- a/src/rm.rs
+++ b/src/rm.rs
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ use crate::index;
 ///     cacache::read("./my-cache", "my-key").await?;
 ///
 ///     // But this succeeds:
-///     cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", &sri).await?;
+///     cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", sri).await?;
 ///
 ///     Ok(())
 /// }
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ where
 ///
 ///     // These fail:
 ///     cacache::read("./my-cache", "my-key").await?;
-///     cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", &sri).await?;
+///     cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", sri).await?;
 ///
 ///     // But this succeeds:
 ///     cacache::metadata("./my-cache", "my-key").await?;
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ pub async fn remove_hash<P: AsRef<Path>>(cache: P, sri: &Integrity) -> Result<()
 ///     // These all fail:
 ///     cacache::read("./my-cache", "my-key").await?;
 ///     cacache::metadata("./my-cache", "my-key").await?;
-///     cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", &sri).await?;
+///     cacache::read_hash("./my-cache", sri).await?;
 ///
 ///     Ok(())
 /// }