In a method of magnetic resonance imaging, a set of nonlinear, mutually orthogonal magnetic gradient encoding fields are sequentially and separately generated in an imaging region [100]. Using multiple receiver coils having nonuniform sensitivity profiles, echo data representing signal intensities in the imaging region is sequentially acquired as the magnetic gradient encoding fields are sequentially generated [102]. A reconstructed image of the imaging region is computed from the acquired echo data [104], and the reconstructed image is then be stored and/or displayed on a display monitor [106].