diff --git a/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplate.java b/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplate.java
index 0006241760..6e5fa12385 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplate.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplate.java
@@ -58,7 +58,8 @@ import org.springframework.web.util.UriUtils;
  * <tr><td>GET</td><td>{@link #getForObject}</td></tr> <tr><td>HEAD</td><td>{@link #headForHeaders}</td></tr>
  * <tr><td>OPTIONS</td><td>{@link #optionsForAllow}</td></tr> <tr><td>POST</td><td>{@link #postForLocation}</td></tr>
  * <tr><td></td><td>{@link #postForObject}</td></tr> <tr><td>PUT</td><td>{@link #put}</td></tr>
- * <tr><td>any</td><td>{@link #execute}</td></tr> </table>
+ * <tr><td>any</td><td>{@link #exchange}</td></tr>
+ * <tr><td></td><td>{@link #execute}</td></tr> </table>
  *
  * <p>For each of these HTTP methods, there are three corresponding Java methods in the {@code RestTemplate}. Two
  * variant take a {@code String} URI as first argument (eg. {@link #getForObject(String, Class, Object[])}, {@link
@@ -360,6 +361,29 @@ public class RestTemplate extends HttpAccessor implements RestOperations {
 		return headers.getAllow();
 	}
 
+	// exchange
+
+	public <Req, Res> HttpEntity<Res> exchange(String url, HttpMethod method,
+			HttpEntity<Req> requestEntity, Class<Res> responseType, Object... uriVariables) throws RestClientException {
+		HttpEntityRequestCallback requestCallback = new HttpEntityRequestCallback(requestEntity, responseType);
+		HttpEntityResponseExtractor<Res> responseExtractor = new HttpEntityResponseExtractor<Res>(responseType);
+		return execute(url, method, requestCallback, responseExtractor, uriVariables);
+	}
+
+	public <Req, Res> HttpEntity<Res> exchange(String url, HttpMethod method,
+			HttpEntity<Req> requestEntity, Class<Res> responseType, Map<String, ?> uriVariables) throws RestClientException {
+		HttpEntityRequestCallback requestCallback = new HttpEntityRequestCallback(requestEntity, responseType);
+		HttpEntityResponseExtractor<Res> responseExtractor = new HttpEntityResponseExtractor<Res>(responseType);
+		return execute(url, method, requestCallback, responseExtractor, uriVariables);
+	}
+
+	public <Req, Res> HttpEntity<Res> exchange(URI url, HttpMethod method, HttpEntity<Req> requestEntity, 
+			Class<Res> responseType) throws RestClientException {
+		HttpEntityRequestCallback requestCallback = new HttpEntityRequestCallback(requestEntity, responseType);
+		HttpEntityResponseExtractor<Res> responseExtractor = new HttpEntityResponseExtractor<Res>(responseType);
+		return execute(url, method, requestCallback, responseExtractor);
+	}
+
 	// general execution
 
 	public <T> T execute(String url, HttpMethod method, RequestCallback requestCallback,
diff --git a/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplateIntegrationTests.java b/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplateIntegrationTests.java
index 09054f1169..ea5732bfa5 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplateIntegrationTests.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplateIntegrationTests.java
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
 import org.springframework.http.HttpEntity;
 import org.springframework.http.HttpMethod;
 import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
+import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
 import org.springframework.http.client.CommonsClientHttpRequestFactory;
 import org.springframework.util.FileCopyUtils;
 import org.springframework.util.LinkedMultiValueMap;
@@ -177,6 +178,16 @@ public class RestTemplateIntegrationTests {
 		template.postForLocation(URI + "/multipart", parts);
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void exchange() throws Exception {
+		HttpHeaders requestHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
+		requestHeaders.set("MyHeader", "MyValue");
+		HttpEntity<?> requestEntity = new HttpEntity(requestHeaders);
+		HttpEntity<String> response =
+				template.exchange(URI + "/{method}", HttpMethod.GET, requestEntity, String.class, "get");
+		assertEquals("Invalid content", helloWorld, response.getBody());
+	}
+
 
 	/** Servlet that returns and error message for a given status code. */
 	private static class ErrorServlet extends GenericServlet {
diff --git a/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplateTests.java b/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplateTests.java
index 87bf2bab90..aa3217777c 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplateTests.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/RestTemplateTests.java
@@ -538,6 +538,40 @@ public class RestTemplateTests {
 		verifyMocks();
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void exchange() throws Exception {
+		MediaType textPlain = new MediaType("text", "plain");
+		expect(converter.canRead(Integer.class, null)).andReturn(true);
+		expect(converter.getSupportedMediaTypes()).andReturn(Collections.singletonList(textPlain));
+		expect(requestFactory.createRequest(new URI("http://example.com"), HttpMethod.POST)).andReturn(this.request);
+		HttpHeaders requestHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
+		expect(this.request.getHeaders()).andReturn(requestHeaders).times(2);
+		expect(converter.canWrite(String.class, null)).andReturn(true);
+		String body = "Hello World";
+		converter.write(body, null, this.request);
+		expect(this.request.execute()).andReturn(response);
+		expect(errorHandler.hasError(response)).andReturn(false);
+		HttpHeaders responseHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
+		responseHeaders.setContentType(textPlain);
+		expect(response.getHeaders()).andReturn(responseHeaders).times(2);
+		Integer expected = 42;
+		expect(converter.canRead(Integer.class, textPlain)).andReturn(true);
+		expect(converter.read(Integer.class, response)).andReturn(expected);
+		response.close();
+
+		replayMocks();
+
+		HttpEntity<String> requestEntity = new HttpEntity<String>(body, Collections.singletonMap("MyHeader", "MyValue"));
+		HttpEntity<Integer> result = template.exchange("http://example.com", HttpMethod.POST, requestEntity, Integer.class);
+		assertEquals("Invalid POST result", expected, result.getBody());
+		assertEquals("Invalid Content-Type", textPlain, result.getHeaders().getContentType());
+		assertEquals("Invalid Accept header", textPlain.toString(), requestHeaders.getFirst("Accept"));
+		assertEquals("Invalid custom header", "MyValue", requestHeaders.getFirst("MyHeader"));
+
+		verifyMocks();
+	}
+
+
 	private void replayMocks() {
 		replay(requestFactory, request, response, errorHandler, converter);
 	}