Mi madre le da la vuelta a la tortilla con un plato.

Here it means to turn something over or to flip something.

So:

• dar la vuelta a la tortilla = to flip the tortilla/omelette over

Literally, dar la vuelta is something like to give the turn, but in normal English you should understand it as turn over or flip.

This is a very common expression in Spanish:

• darle la vuelta al filete = to turn the steak over
• darle la vuelta a la tortilla = to flip the omelette over

In other contexts, dar la vuelta can also mean to turn around or to go back, so the exact meaning depends on the sentence.

Because Spanish very often uses an indirect object pronoun together with the full noun.

So in:

• Mi madre le da la vuelta a la tortilla

the le refers to la tortilla.

This is extremely common in Spanish, especially with verbs and expressions like this one. It may feel redundant to an English speaker, but in Spanish it sounds natural.

You can think of:

• le ... a la tortilla

as a kind of doubling:

• le = to it
• a la tortilla = to the omelette

Even though English would not normally say My mother gives it the turn to the omelette, Spanish does this naturally with the idiom dar la vuelta a algo.

Da is the third person singular of the verb dar in the present tense.

The subject is Mi madre, which is she, so the verb must be da:

• yo doy
• tú das
• él / ella da
• nosotros damos
• vosotros dais
• ellos dan

So:

• Mi madre da... = My mother gives / turns / flips...

In this sentence, da is part of the expression dar la vuelta a.

That a belongs to the expression dar la vuelta a algo.

So you should learn it as a whole pattern:

• darle la vuelta a algo = to turn something over

The a here is not the personal a. It is just the preposition required by the expression.

Examples:

• Le di la vuelta al papel. = I turned the paper over.
• Dale la vuelta al pescado. = Turn the fish over.
• Mi madre le da la vuelta a la tortilla. = My mother flips the omelette over.

Notice that a + el = al, but a + la = a la.

In Spain, tortilla usually means omelette, especially a Spanish omelette such as tortilla de patatas.

So in this sentence, la tortilla is almost certainly an omelette being flipped in a pan.

This is an important regional difference:

• In Spain: tortilla = omelette
• In much of Latin America: tortilla = tortilla flatbread

Since you asked about Spanish from Spain, the Spain meaning is the one that matters here.

It means with a plate.

In Spain, when cooking a tortilla, people often put a plate over the frying pan, turn everything upside down, and then slide the tortilla back into the pan. So:

• con un plato = using a plate

The phrase tells you how she flips it.

So the full idea is:

• Mi madre le da la vuelta a la tortilla con un plato.
• My mother flips the omelette over using a plate.

Because the sentence is talking about a plate, not a specific previously mentioned plate.

• un plato = a plate
• el plato = the plate

If no particular plate has been mentioned before, Spanish normally uses the indefinite article:

• con un plato = with a plate

If the speaker and listener already know which plate is meant, then el plato could be possible in another context.

In careful, natural Spanish, le is the normal choice here.

So:

• Mi madre le da la vuelta a la tortilla ✅

sounds natural.

Without le:

• Mi madre da la vuelta a la tortilla

is understandable, but it sounds less natural in this kind of everyday usage. Learners will hear darle la vuelta a algo much more often than dar la vuelta a algo.

A good rule is to learn the expression as:

• darle la vuelta a algo

It can be both.

In this sentence, it is literal: your mother is physically flipping the omelette.

But dar la vuelta a la tortilla can also be figurative in Spanish and mean something like:

• to turn the situation around
• to reverse things
• to change the balance

For example, in politics, sports, or an argument, someone might say:

• El equipo dio la vuelta a la tortilla.

meaning the team turned the situation around.

So this expression is useful both literally and figuratively.

Yes, Spanish word order is flexible, and con un plato could move.

The given sentence:

• Mi madre le da la vuelta a la tortilla con un plato

is perfectly natural.

But you might also hear:

• Mi madre, con un plato, le da la vuelta a la tortilla.
• Mi madre le da con un plato la vuelta a la tortilla.
  This is possible, but less natural here.
• Con un plato, mi madre le da la vuelta a la tortilla.

The original version is probably the clearest and most natural for a learner.

In general, Spanish often places the main action first and then adds the extra detail:

• le da la vuelta a la tortilla
  • con un plato

Yes, that is a useful way to understand it at first.

In this sentence:

• le = to it
• a la tortilla = to the omelette

But be careful: in English we would not translate it word for word. We do not say:

• My mother gives the turn to it to the omelette

Instead, we translate the whole expression naturally:

• My mother flips the omelette over with a plate.

So to it is a helpful grammar clue, but not the best final English translation.