diff --git a/docs/_src/api/api/pipelines.md b/docs/_src/api/api/pipelines.md
index b8199b99a..6d9366d91 100644
--- a/docs/_src/api/api/pipelines.md
+++ b/docs/_src/api/api/pipelines.md
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ then be found in the dict returned by this method under the key "_debug"
 #### eval
 
 ```python
-def eval(labels: List[MultiLabel], params: Optional[dict] = None, sas_model_name_or_path: str = None, add_isolated_node_eval: bool = False) -> EvaluationResult
+def eval(labels: List[MultiLabel], documents: Optional[List[List[Document]]] = None, params: Optional[dict] = None, sas_model_name_or_path: str = None, add_isolated_node_eval: bool = False) -> EvaluationResult
 ```
 
 Evaluates the pipeline by running the pipeline once per query in debug mode
@@ -252,6 +252,7 @@ and putting together all data that is needed for evaluation, e.g. calculating me
 **Arguments**:
 
 - `labels`: The labels to evaluate on
+- `documents`: List of List of Document that the first node in the pipeline should get as input per multilabel. Can be used to evaluate a pipeline that consists of a reader without a retriever.
 - `params`: Dictionary of parameters to be dispatched to the nodes.
 If you want to pass a param to all nodes, you can just use: {"top_k":10}
 If you want to pass it to targeted nodes, you can do:
diff --git a/haystack/pipelines/base.py b/haystack/pipelines/base.py
index 97191d57d..a02424c26 100644
--- a/haystack/pipelines/base.py
+++ b/haystack/pipelines/base.py
@@ -480,6 +480,7 @@ class Pipeline(BasePipeline):
     def eval(
         self,
         labels: List[MultiLabel],
+        documents: Optional[List[List[Document]]] = None,
         params: Optional[dict] = None,
         sas_model_name_or_path: str = None,
         add_isolated_node_eval: bool = False,
@@ -489,6 +490,7 @@ class Pipeline(BasePipeline):
         and putting together all data that is needed for evaluation, e.g. calculating metrics.
 
         :param labels: The labels to evaluate on
+        :param documents: List of List of Document that the first node in the pipeline should get as input per multilabel. Can be used to evaluate a pipeline that consists of a reader without a retriever.
         :param params: Dictionary of parameters to be dispatched to the nodes.
                     If you want to pass a param to all nodes, you can just use: {"top_k":10}
                     If you want to pass it to targeted nodes, you can do:
@@ -518,7 +520,9 @@ class Pipeline(BasePipeline):
             if params is None:
                 params = {}
             params["add_isolated_node_eval"] = True
-        for label in labels:
+
+        # if documents is None, set docs_per_label to None for each label
+        for docs_per_label, label in zip(documents or [None] * len(labels), labels):
             params_per_label = copy.deepcopy(params)
             if label.filters is not None:
                 if params_per_label is None:
@@ -526,7 +530,9 @@ class Pipeline(BasePipeline):
                 else:
                     # join both filters and overwrite filters in params with filters in labels
                     params_per_label["filters"] = {**params_per_label.get("filters", {}), **label.filters}
-            predictions = self.run(query=label.query, labels=label, params=params_per_label, debug=True)
+            predictions = self.run(
+                query=label.query, labels=label, documents=docs_per_label, params=params_per_label, debug=True
+            )
 
             for node_name in predictions["_debug"].keys():
                 node_output = predictions["_debug"][node_name]["output"]
diff --git a/test/test_eval.py b/test/test_eval.py
index 742d8912c..295fd91b8 100644
--- a/test/test_eval.py
+++ b/test/test_eval.py
@@ -519,6 +519,21 @@ def test_extractive_qa_eval_sas(reader, retriever_with_docs):
     assert metrics["Reader"]["sas"] == pytest.approx(1.0)
 
 
+def test_reader_eval_in_pipeline(reader):
+    pipeline = Pipeline()
+    pipeline.add_node(component=reader, name="Reader", inputs=["Query"])
+    eval_result: EvaluationResult = pipeline.eval(
+        labels=EVAL_LABELS,
+        documents=[[label.document for label in multilabel.labels] for multilabel in EVAL_LABELS],
+        params={},
+    )
+
+    metrics = eval_result.calculate_metrics()
+
+    assert metrics["Reader"]["exact_match"] == 1.0
+    assert metrics["Reader"]["f1"] == 1.0
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("retriever_with_docs", ["tfidf"], indirect=True)
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("document_store_with_docs", ["memory"], indirect=True)
 def test_extractive_qa_eval_doc_relevance_col(reader, retriever_with_docs):