diff --git a/car-mirror-benches/Cargo.toml b/car-mirror-benches/Cargo.toml
index ba1c467..ccda826 100644
--- a/car-mirror-benches/Cargo.toml
+++ b/car-mirror-benches/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ anyhow = "1.0"
 async-std = { version = "1.11", features = ["attributes"] }
 async-trait = "0.1"
 bytes = "1.4.0"
-car-mirror = { path = "../car-mirror", version = "0.1", features = ["test_utils"] }
+car-mirror = { path = "../car-mirror", version = "0.1", features = ["test_utils", "quick_cache"] }
 libipld = "0.16.0"
 wnfs-common = "0.1.23"
 
diff --git a/car-mirror/Cargo.toml b/car-mirror/Cargo.toml
index 891c95b..7b8ed45 100644
--- a/car-mirror/Cargo.toml
+++ b/car-mirror/Cargo.toml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ iroh-car = "0.3.0"
 libipld = "0.16.0"
 libipld-core = "0.16.0"
 proptest = { version = "1.1", optional = true }
-quick_cache = "0.4.0"
+quick_cache = { version = "0.4.0", optional = true }
 roaring-graphs = { version = "0.12", optional = true }
 serde = "1.0.183"
 serde_ipld_dagcbor = "0.4.0"
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ test-strategy = "0.3"
 [features]
 default = []
 test_utils = ["proptest", "roaring-graphs"]
+quick_cache = ["dep:quick_cache"]
 
 [package.metadata.docs.rs]
 all-features = true
diff --git a/car-mirror/src/traits.rs b/car-mirror/src/traits.rs
index fe06f86..163eb53 100644
--- a/car-mirror/src/traits.rs
+++ b/car-mirror/src/traits.rs
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ use wnfs_common::BlockStore;
 /// At the moment, all caches are conceptually memoization tables, so you don't
 /// necessarily need to think about being careful about cache eviction.
 ///
-/// See `InMemoryCache` for a `quick_cache`-based implementation, and
-/// `NoCache` for disabling the cache.
+/// See `InMemoryCache` for a `quick_cache`-based implementation
+/// (enable the `quick-cache` feature), and `NoCache` for disabling the cache.
 #[async_trait(?Send)]
 pub trait Cache {
     /// This returns further references from the block referenced by given CID,
@@ -51,11 +51,13 @@ pub trait Cache {
 /// A [quick-cache]-based implementation of a car mirror cache.
 ///
 /// [quick-cache]: https://github.com/arthurprs/quick-cache/
+#[cfg(feature = "quick_cache")]
 #[derive(Debug)]
 pub struct InMemoryCache {
     references: quick_cache::sync::Cache<Cid, Vec<Cid>>,
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "quick_cache")]
 impl InMemoryCache {
     /// Create a new in-memory cache that approximately holds
     /// cached references for `approx_capacity` CIDs.
@@ -82,6 +84,7 @@ impl InMemoryCache {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "quick_cache")]
 #[async_trait(?Send)]
 impl Cache for InMemoryCache {
     async fn get_references_cached(&self, cid: Cid) -> Result<Option<Vec<Cid>>> {