A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging method performed by an MR imaging system includes acquiring MR data in multiple shots and multiple acquisitions (NEX), separately reconstructing the component magnitude and phase of images corresponding to the multiple shots and multiple NEX, removing the respective phase from each of the images, and combining, after removal of the respective phase, the shot images and the NEX images to produce a combined image. The method further includes using the combined image to calculate the full k-space data for each shot and NEX and replacing unacquired k-space data points with calculated k-space data points. The operations are repeated until the combined image reaches a convergence.