Why are all the ingrediants in Israel making my food so tart?

During our first week in Eilat, I was really motivated to cook each meal and start the research trip on a healthy note. At home, I usually make a large batch of food and munch on it for 2-3 days.

The first meal I made were gnocchi in tomato sauce with vegetables... for some reason it came out a little bit tart. I used tomato paste to make the sauce and I figured it was more tart than the kind in the U.S. 

The second meal I made was a large pot of quinoa, vegetables, and beans (which I bought dried, and ended up soaking for 2 days). First of all, the beans were not soft enough. I didn't realize this after I put everything in the pot, so the beans were slightly crunchy. Secondly, the dish turned out pretty tart. Not tart like "Oh, I think I used too much lemon", but tart like "This is kind of making my stomach hurt."

I'm not sure now how I realized this - but it turns out that I had been using citric acid instead of salt. Yes, the people that we were subletting the house from kept citric acid in their kitchen for food flavoring. I tried to salvage it, but I ended up throwing most of it away. 

The only bright side is that I have been very cautious to read all labels, in and out of the lab, after the mishap.