How to compare a JSON object and a Waterline model instance?

Note: I have also opened an issue for this on the Waterline repo but not gotten a simpler solution than my workaround.

I have a User model with all the default attributes (e.g. createdDate, modifiedDate) and a few custom ones like emailAddress, password (suppressed in toJSON()), etc. and some additional associations with other models.

What is the correct way to compare a controller response consisting of a User model instance in JSON format to a Waterline model instance?

For example, this workaround works:

request
  .get('/user/1')
  .end(function (err, res) {
    expect(res.body).to.deep.equal(
      JSON.parse(JSON.stringify( // Workaround for toJSON not stringifying dates
        _.cloneDeep( // Workaround for associations being lost
          testUser.toJSON() // `testUser` is a Waterline model instance that should be equivalent to the requested data (`/user/1`)
        )
      )) 
    );
    done();
   });

But just about everything else I've tried doesn't; either associations are lost (the cloneDeep() resolves this) or stringified dates are being compared to Date objects (the JSON.parse(JSON.stringify()) resolves this).

Is there a better way to compare JSON with a Waterline model instance? Perhaps some built-in utility?